BP to continue cooperating on ACG for Azerbaijan's benefit

BP leadership agreed to continue working closely with Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR and the partner group to manage oil production from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli fields in the Caspian Sea for the benefit of the State of Azerbaijan and its partners, BP-Azerbaijan said in a statement on Thursday.

According to the statement, the president of the SOCAR, Rovnag Adbullayev, and his senior executive team on Wednesday met BP group chief executive Robert Dudley and the BP upstream executive team in London.

"It was an open and constructive meeting and the task ahead is clear. BP is fully committed to Azerbaijan and the effective management of the ACG field complex, one of the world's great oil fields", Dudley said.

Earlier addressing a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers to discuss the results of the country's socio-economic development in nine months of 2012, and outline further priorities, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said that serious mistakes of international consortium (Azerbaijan International Operating Company), operator of which is the company BP, led to a sharp decline in oil production on the Azeri and Chirag fields.

The contract on the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli full field development was signed in 1994.

Participants of the project to develop Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli are: BP (operator - 35.83 percent), Chevron (11.27 percent), Inpex (10.96 percent), AzACG (11.6 percent), Statoil (8.56 percent), Exxon (8 percent), TPAO (6.75 percent), Itocu (4.3 percent) and Hess (2.72 percent). Hess has sold its share to Indian ONGC, the transaction will be completed in the first quarter of 2013.


/Trend/