Offshore Project To Get Green Light

The BP-led Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC) expects the Azeri government to give a green light in August for the next phase of its Caspian oil production project. AIOC's president David Woodward said the next phase aims to boost production to 350,000 bpd in 2005 from current levels of 100,000-130,000 bpd. The project envisages bringing the Azeri field onstream in early 2005, adding to volumes from the Chirag field which has been in production since 1997. The cost of the expansion plans, called Phase One, is put at $3.3-3.4 billion, Woodward said. The next phase envisages the construction of a drilling platform for 48 wells, a gas compressing facility, an underwater pipeline from the Azeri field and modernization of an onshore oil terminal. The new production levels would be reached just as a planned $2.8-2.9 billion pipeline from Baku across Georgia to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan would be completed. AIOC has already pumped more than 14 million tons of oil from Chirag since 1997, exporting oil through a pipeline to Supsa on Georgia's Black Sea coast. AIOC unites BP, Unocal, Azeri state oil company SOCAR, Russia's LUKOIL, Statoil, Exxon Mobil, TPAO of Turkey, Devon Energy, Itochu and Delta Hess. - (Reuters)