(Adds details, context)
BAKU, Dec 18 (Reuters) - British oil major BP plans
to close down two of its oil and gas platforms in Azerbaijan for
planned maintenance next year, BP's regional vice president told
Reuters on Wednesday.
Bakhtiyar Aslanbayli, BP's vice president for Azerbaijan,
Georgia and Turkey, said the maintenance would take place in the
second half of 2020.
He said that maintenance shutdowns would take place at
Chirag and Shah Deniz-Alfa platforms.
A BP-led consortium produces oil at Azerbaijan's giant
Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) oilfield and natural gas - at the
major Shah Deniz field.
The Shah Deniz I field has been pumping gas since 2006,
while output from Shah Deniz II is expected to reach 16 billion
cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas per year, with 10 bcm
earmarked for Europe and 6 bcm for Turkey.
Aslanbayli said the consortium planned to produce 16.6 bcm
of gas at Shah Deniz this year.
"Gas output will be rising, while oil production will be
declining as expected," he said, adding that peak gas output
would be in 2022-2023.
He said seismic works at bloc D-220 as well as drilling the
first exploration well at the Shafag-Asiman gas field had been
postponed to January next year due to bad weather conditions.
Drilling will take 12-13 months.
(Reporting by Nailia Bagirova; writing by Margarita Antidze;
editing by Louise Heavens and David Evans)
BP (BP.)
