(Corrects production estimate to average for year, paragraph 2)
BAKU, Jan 29 (Reuters) - BP said on Wednesday it hadextracted the first oil at the rate of 6,000 barrels per day atits offshore Azeri's West Chirag platform, boosting thecompany's attempts to keep oil output rising in the ex-Sovietcountry.
Gordon Birrell, the head of BP Azerbaijan, also said thecompany planned to reach an average production of 60,000 barrelsper day, or 3 million tonnes in total, at the Caspian platformthis year.
The platform is a part of the Azeri, Chirag and Guneshli(ACG) oilfields, the biggest Azeri project and one of thelargest globally for oil major BP.
Declining output at the project had raised concerns in Baku,although Azeri's state energy company SOCAR and BP said in JuneACG's oil production had stabilised.
SOCAR said in late December that Azerbaijan's oil andcondensate production rose by 0.4 percent in 2013 to 43.5million tonnes, confirming that output had stabilised after twoyears of declines. (Reporting by Nailia Bagirova; writing by Vladimir Soldatkin;editing by David Evans and Jane Baird)