* Oil output at ACG fields rises to 8 mln T in Q1
* Gas output at Shah Deniz rises to 2.6 bcm (Adds detail, background)
By Margarita Antidze
TBILISI, May 13 (Reuters) - Oil output from BP-led oilfields in Azerbaijan in the first quarter of 2015 wasslightly higher than a year earlier, BP-Azerbaijan said onWednesday, driving a rise in the country's total oil production.
Oil output at the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oilfields,which account for most of Azerbaijan's output, rose to 8 milliontonnes in January-March from 7.9 million in the same period lastyear.
Daily oil production at the ACG fields rose to an average661,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 645,800 bpd a year ago.
BP said in its report it spent around $160 million inoperating expenditure and $470 million in capital expenditure onthe ACG activities in the first three months of this year.
Azerbaijan said total crude oil and condensate production inAzerbaijan rose to 14.2 million tonnes in the first four monthsof 2015 from 13.6 million a year earlier, driven by rising oiloutput at the ACG fields.
Falling output at the ACG oilfields has been a cause ofconcern in Baku.
BP and its partner, Azeri state energy company SOCAR, triedto calm those worries in 2013, saying production had stabilised.Total oil output rose in 2013 for the first time since 2011, butthe decline resumed in 2014.
BP said earlier this week it would suspend operations at oneof its ACG platforms for three weeks at the end of May forplanned maintenance.
Natural gas output from the Shah Deniz offshore field inAzerbaijan rose to 2.6 billion cubic metres (bcm) in the firstquarter of this year from 2.32 bcm in the same period of 2014.
It produced 0.6 million tonnes of condensate, the same as inthe first quarter of last year.
Shah Deniz is estimated to contain 1.2-1.5 trillion cubicmetres of gas.
Shah Deniz I has been pumping gas since 2006, while gas fromits second stage is expected to reach Europe by 2019-2020.
Overall gas production in Azerbaijan fell to 9.7 bcm inJanuary-April from 10.2 bcm a year earlier due to a decline inproduction by SOCAR.
Azerbaijan plans to produce 40.3 million tonnes of oil and29 bcm of gas in 2015. (Additional reporting by Nailia Bagirova; Editing by MarkPotter)
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