BAKU, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Output may fall at the BP-led Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oilfield in Azerbaijan thisyear due to planned maintenance, the British oil major'sregional head said on Wednesday.
ACG, with a number of platforms in the Caspian Sea, isAzerbaijan's biggest field and one of the largest globally forBP.
The Azeri government accused the British oil major in 2012of making "false promises" about output at ACG, which had beenexpected to pump over 1 million barrels per day but peaked at823,000 bpd in 2010, the year of BP's Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Gordon Birrell, BP's president for theAzerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey region, told a news conference thatACG's preliminary production figure for last year was around32.5 million tonnes (650,000 bpd).
The 2014 figure might be slightly lower than in 2013 as BPplans maintenance work at the Central Azeri and West Azeriplatforms, halting their operations for a couple of weeks,Birrell said. He did not say when the work would start.
On Wednesday, BP announced the start-up of oil productionfrom the West Chirag platform, part of the ACG project. Thisyear, the platform will produce an average of 60,000 bpd,Birrell said.
The 2010 oil spill triggered management and strategy changesat BP, which last year sold its 50 percent stake in Russian oilventure TNK-BP to state-controlled Rosneft, whichbecame the world's biggest listed oil company by output.