MOSCOW (MRC) -- 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.
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 meters (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.
As MRC reported earlier, in December 2019, several companies announced the formation of a new consortium that aims to address the problem of plastic waste by speeding up the commercialization of BP Infinia enhanced recycling technology that was developed by London-based BP. Businesses involved in the partnership include those that manufacture, use, collect and recycle polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic packaging. BP Infinia is designed to turn opaque and hard-to-recycle PET plastic scrap into recyclable feedstocks that can be used to make high-quality PET packaging with no loss in quality, according to BP.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's overall estimated PET consumption reached 42,020 tonnes in October 2019, down by 32% year on year. PET consumption in Russia increased to 593,480 tonnes in January-October 2019, up by 5% year on year.
BP is one of the world's largest oil and gas companies, serving millions of customers every day in around 80 countries, and employing around 85,000 people. BP’s business segments are Upstream (oil and gas exploration & production), and Downstream (refining & marketing). Through these activities, BP provides fuel for transportation; energy for heat and light; services for motorists; and petrochemicals products for plastics, textiles and food packaging. It has strong positions in many of the world's hydrocarbon basins and strong market positions in key economies.
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