BP restarts production at Azerbaijani oil platform hit by safety fault
Firefighting water pumps were found to be faulty during routine maintenance
BP has restarted production at one of its offshore oil platforms in Azerbaijan after repairing faulty firefighting water pumps.
The Chirag platform, which produces 90,000 barrels a day, was shut down last Saturday after the problems were discovered during routine maintenance. It is part of the vast Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) field in the Caspian Sea, which produces 854,000 barrels a day.
The Guardian published leaked US cables last week that reported that the company experienced a near fatal blowout in September 2008 at a well near its offshore Central Azeri oil production platform in the ACG field in the Caspian Sea. BP at the time only publicly acknowledged that a gas leak had taken place.
Striking similarities between the Azerbaijan near-miss and the Gulf of Mexico disaster, which took place less than 18 months afterwards, emerged from the cables. Responding to the Wikileaks revelations, BP said it had safety evacuated all its 212 workers on the Central Azeri platform. It added: “BP continues to have a successful and mutually beneficial partnership with the government of Azerbaijan.”
BP is the largest shareholder in the Azerbaijan International Operating Company consortium which owns and operates the ACG field. After suspending oil production at the Chirag platform 10 days ago, BP also halted shipments at its Baku-Supsa pipeline, which pumps Chirag’s oil to the Black Sea in Georgia. This pipeline is expected to come back online soon after yesterday’s restart of production. A BP spokesman said he was not aware whether routine maintenance which uncovered the problem with the platform’s water pumps had been stepped up on its offshore production operations following the Gulf of Mexico disaster. BP had reviewed how it manages its drilling operations, he added, because the Gulf well was being drilled and was not in production when the blowout took place this year.
Following the Gulf disaster, which resulted in the deaths of 11 workers and the largest offshore accidental oil spill in history, BP’s safety record is under intense scrutiny, particularly offshore.
The September 2008 gas leak and blowout resulted in two fields being shut, the Central Azeri platform suspending production and output being cut by at least 500,000 barrels a day. Production was disrupted for months.
Azerbaijan relies on BP to increase production and to develop its vast oil and gas reserves in the Caspian Sea.
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