The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic has reached an agreement with BP PLC (BP) on stabilizing production in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field in the Caspian Sea , SOCAR president Rovnag Abdullayev said Wednesday.

The deal is expected to result in the production of 33 million tons of oil from the field in 2013 and 35 million tons in 2014.

"It is also planned to develop a long-term program for the years 2014-2024, in order to maintain stable volumes of 33-34 million tons of oil per year," Mr. Abdullayev said.

He noted that the reason for the slow growth of production at the field was technical in nature.

"After the problems BP had in the Gulf of Mexico and the detection of a gas leak in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli" in 2008, BP "chose to give it up, rather than to manage the risk," Abdullayev said.

Azeri President Ilham Aliyev said earlier this month that blunders at the field led to a sharp decline in oil production that resulted in $8 billion in lost revenue.

Διαβάστε ακόμα