SOCAR sees ACG output over 30m t in 2014, 2015

Azeri state energy firm SOCAR expects oil output at the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oilfields to reach more than 30 million tonnes this year and next, its president said on Tuesday.

Lower output from the main ACG oilfields, operated by BP , had previously raised concerns in Baku. ACG production last year was 32.2 million tonnes.

"I am confident that oil production at ACG will reach more than 30 million tonnes by the end of the year. We expect the same figure next year," SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev told reporters, according to Reuters.

He said any decline in output was linked to some technical problems, but the production process was "under control".

"The situation at ACG is under permanent control and the company (SOCAR) has worked out its own production programme of the block as a control mechanism," Abdullayev said.

BP and its partner SOCAR said last year that output from the fields - the biggest oil production project in Azerbaijan and one of the largest globally for the British oil company - had stabilised.

BP said earlier this year that oil production at ACG might be slightly lower than in 2013 as the company planned maintenance work at the Central Azeri and West Azeri platforms, halting operations for a couple of weeks.

The company did not say when the work would start.

Output from ACG oilfields fell to 16 million tonnes, or an average 656,000 barrels per day (bpd), in the first half of 2014 from 16.4 million tonnes (672,000 bpd) in the same period last year, BP-Azerbaijan said last month.

Still, production in the first half was higher than the average 645,800 bpd produced in the first three months of the year. 

Bakudaily.Az