BP to carry out maintenance at Central Azeri platform in late August

BP plans to carry out scheduled maintenance work at the Central Azeri platform of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) oilfield block in the last third of August, according to BP Azerbaijan.

Responding to an inquiry from Report, BP-Azerbaijan's Head of Press, Tamam Bayatli, said the maintenance program is expected to begin in the final ten days of August.

She noted that the platform will not be fully shut down during the maintenance period.

"The maintenance program at the Central Azeri platform is scheduled for approximately the last ten days of August. I would also like to note that a complete shutdown of the platform is not planned during this period," Bayatli said.

She added that the use of modern technologies allows maintenance work to be carried out within a short period without suspending the platform's operations.

Earlier this year, BP Regional President for Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Türkiye Giovanni Cristofoli said the company planned a partial maintenance shutdown of the Central Azeri platform in August. The maintenance is expected to last 11 days, during which only the platform's gas facilities will be taken offline, while oil production will continue.

The ACG block is Azerbaijan's largest group of oil fields. The first production sharing agreement for its development was signed on September 20, 1994, and an amended agreement signed on September 14, 2017, extended development of the fields through the end of 2049.