BP says it has no plans to scale down oil and gas in Azerbaijan

BAKU, Aug 13 (Reuters) - British oil major BP has no
plans to scale down its oil and gas business in Azerbaijan amid
global plans to rebalance its portfolio towards renewables,
Bakhtiyar Aslanbayli, BP's vice president for Azerbaijan,
Georgia and Turkey, said.

Sources familiar with BP's thinking told Reuters last week
that the company was preparing to sell a large chunk of its oil
and gas assets, even if crude prices bounce back from the
COVID-19 crash, because it wants to invest more in renewable
energy.

"In Azerbaijan, we have a responsibility to explore and
develop the country's major oil and gas resources and we remain
committed to that responsibility, which is very important to
us," Aslanbayli told Reuters.

He said BP's new strategy did envisage reducing the share of
oil and gas in its portfolio.

"What is changing is that BP will no longer be predominantly
a hydrocarbon company, it will be an integrated energy company -
with oil and gas one part of a more balanced portfolio,"
Aslanbayli said.

He said oil and gas would continue to be core to BP where it
had specific commitments to the host country.

"Part of that commitment is that in 2030, we still expect to
be investing around $9 billion globally per year into our oil
and gas business," Aslanbayli said.

BP has been working in Azerbaijan for almost three decades,
operating in major projects as oil production in the
Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli fields and gas from the Shah Deniz field
as well as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline and the South
Caucasus Pipeline (SCP).

It has put $72 billion of capital expenditure into these
projects since operations began in 1995.

(Reporting by Margarita Antidze and Nailia Bagirova; Writing by
Margarita Antidze; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

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