Winter 1999 (7.4)
Page 98

BP/Amoco Section
BP Amoco - Current Developments

by Tamam Bayatly

First Profit Oil
The December 22, 1999 shipment of oil to Supsa, Georgia via the Western Route Export Pipeline (WREP) marked Azerbaijan's First Profit Oil from Chirag. The shipment contained approximately 1 million barrels (135,000 tons). The cumulative operating costs incurred by the Foreign Oil Companies and the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) in operating the Chirag field, the Northern Route Export Pipeline (NREP) and the WREP have been recovered. The participating companies are now receiving their shares of Profit Oil.

Before Profit Oil, SOCAR entered into agreements with various Foreign Oil Companies to lift the oil associated with SOCAR's equity share in the agreement. Now with the achievement of Profit Oil, SOCAR is lifting and selling its own Chirag crude oil cargoes. A total of 24 million barrels of Chirag oil have been exported to world markets via the WREP. The pipeline operates at full capacity, carrying 115,000 bpd from the Sangachal terminal near Baku to Supsa. The Sangachal Terminal has achieved an outstanding safety performance, operating for two years without a single lost time incident.

Baku-Jeyhan Agreements
During the November 1999 OSCE Summit in Istanbul, the countries of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey signed an Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) in support of the Main Export Pipeline through Baku-Tbilisi-Jeyhan (Ceyhan in Turkish). This was a significant milestone achieved by the Azerbaijan Working Group led by Deputy Prime Minister Abid Sharifov. AIOC and other members of the Azerbaijan Working Group have worked hard over the last year to negotiate a set of agreements on the pipeline.

Once the Host Government Agreements (HGAs) have been concluded with Georgia and Azerbaijan, they will be submitted to the parliaments of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey for ratification. Upon ratification, the governments will encourage the formation of a Sponsor Group of potential investors to take the project forward.

Azerbaijan Carpet Book
A ceremony was held at the Grand Hotel Europe to present "Azerbaijan Carpet," an exquisite volume published by BP Amoco and supported by the UN office in Azerbaijan, the UNDP and Baku Art and Culture Helpers.

Photo: BP Amoco's Public Affairs Officer Mehdi Huseinguliyev displaying the new Azerbaijan Carpet book for which he helped manage the publication.

Author Roya Taghiyeva is Director of the Azerbaijan State Museum of Carpets and Handicrafts. The 262-page volume features hundreds of color photographs, showing the centuries - long development of Azerbaijan's carpets. The book will be placed in 500 museums and libraries around the world and will serve as a definitive reference work for Azerbaijan's national heritage for many decades to come. Copies are available for sale at the Carpet Museum.

Directional Drilling
BP Amoco has set another Caspian Sea drilling record during the drilling of the A-14z directional well from the Chirag-1 offshore platform. A-14z is a production well with a total depth of 5,424 meters and a record total distance of 3,971 meters from the platform. The previous record of 3,551 meters for maximum well departure was also held by the Chirag-1 platform. To date, a total of 14 wells have been drilled from the Chirag platform. Both drilling performance and production rates from Chirag are better than originally forecast, with current daily production of more than 100,000 barrels.

Shah Daniz
The Istiglal rig drilling through the Shah Daniz reservoir has now reached the target depth in well SDX-2, approximately six km to the south of SDX-1. A comprehensive logging and testing program will be carried out during the first quarter of 2000 along with the drilling of a third well SDX-3. The data collection from SDX-2 will provide more information about other areas of the reservoir. The first exploration well, SDX-1, drilled to a total depth of 6,316 meters, encountered a significant gas condensate resource, identifying Azerbaijan as a potential major gas exporter.

BP Amoco's annual "Excellence in Teaching Competition," held in collaboration with the Baku Mayor's Office biology teacher Rahima Aliyeva was named Teacher of the Year. Third grader Arifa Dadashzade, tenth grader Javid Gafarzade and seventh grader Rauf Babayev were named Pupils of the Year.

Mugham Festival
Nearly 400 talented mugham and folk music singers competed in BP Amoco's Third Annual Children's Mugham Festival. Most of the participants were refugee children from Karabakh-known as the cradle of Azerbaijani mugham [traditional modal music]. Nine-year-old Murad Rustamsade won the grand prize for performing Bayati Kurd - one of Azerbaijan's most difficult mughams.

Photo: Grand Prix Winner of Children's Mugham Festival, Murad Rustamzade, age 9. Photo: Abbasaliyev.

Chess Team
Recently BP Amoco sponsored Azerbaijan's 12-member junior chess team on their trip to Greece for the European Junior Chess Championship. Teymur Rajabov [see feature article, this issue] and Nijad Mammadov both won gold medals and Vugar Hashimov won a silver. The company awarded computers to these three leading players.

Education
BP Amoco has donated 20,000 Alphabet books to refugee children and additional supplies to 900 refugee first-graders. The company is planning to supply refugee children in grades 5-9 with textbooks. Two other books with environmental themes for children were also published: "Wonderful Life of the Caspian Sea" and the "Ecological and Geographic Atlas of Azerbaijan."

For the third year, AIOC - operated by BP Amoco - sponsored the Young Scientist Award, a scientific research competition. The project encourages the development of science, especially research related to oil. BP Amoco also launched computer classes for students at the Chemistry & Biology Lyceum, one of Baku's leading secondary schools.


From Azerbaijan International (7.4) Winter 1999.
© Azerbaijan International 1999. All rights reserved.

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