"We would like to keep oil production at the ACG block in 2015 at the last year's level," Xosbaxt Yusifzada said.

Oil production at the BP -operated ACG fields in 2014 was 31.5 million tonnes.

Speaking at the Caspian Business Forum, Yusifzada said daily production at these oilfields, which account for most of Azerbaijan's production, was 86,000 tonnes in the first nine months of 2015, while total output at the ACG in that period was 23.5 million tonnes.

BP said in August that daily oil output at the ACG fell to an average 641,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the first half of 2015 from 656,000 bpd in the same period last year and 661,000 bpd in the first quarter of this year.

Crude oil and condensate production in Azerbaijan fell 2.2 percent to 31.4 million tonnes in the first nine months of 2015, from 32.1 million tonnes a year earlier, a source at the State Statistics Committee said on Tuesday.

Crude oil and condensate production in Azerbaijan fell to 41.9 million tonnes last year from 43.1 million in 2013.

Oil production rose to 14.2 million tonnes in the first four months of 2015 from 13.6 million a year earlier.

Output started to decline in May, however, as BP suspended operations at one platform in the Caspian Sea, West Azeri, for planned maintenance on May 21 for 22 days.

Falling output at the ACG oilfields has been a cause of concern in Baku.

BP and its partner, SOCAR, tried to calm worries in 2013, saying production had stabilised. Total (Swiss: FP.SW - news) oil output rose in 2013 for the first time since 2011, but the decline resumed in 2014.

Azerbaijan plans to produce 40.7 million tonnes of oil in 2015.

 

(Reuters)