Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

Oil giant BP has appointed its new head in Azerbaijan, a resource-rich South Caucasus republic where it is implementing a number of large-scale energy projects.

Gordon Birrell will succeed Rashid Javanshir as BP's Regional President for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey (AGT), with effect from November 15, BP Azerbaijan said last Friday.

Birrell is currently Head of Safety and Operational Risk for BP's Production Division, responsible for driving improvements in BP's operating quality across the company's global Production Division.

Bob Fryar, BP's Executive Vice President for Production, says: "Gordon, as an experienced leader and as someone previously involved in our exploration projects in Azerbaijan, will continue our successful partnership here through joint development and implementation of our long-term business plans, in particular, the plan for long-term stabilization of ACG production which is being developed with partners and the government of Azerbaijan."

Birrell is a highly experienced oil and gas industry professional with a 26-year track record of leading and operating in the upstream. He joined BP in 1986 into the BP Graduate Training Programme.

Since late 2010 he has been the Head of Safety and Operational Risk for BP's Production Division, leading a global team that is deployed into each region where BP operates in the upstream around the world. He was also director of the BP Subsea Well Response Company Ltd.

Birrell is a chartered engineer and a fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology.

He has an MBA from Warwick University and an honors degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.

BP also announced last Friday the appointment of Rashid Javanshir as Senior Vice-President on strategy and integration, based in London. Javanshir has led BP's regional business in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey since September 2009.

"We are bringing Rashid to London to a position which will allow us to utilize his extensive experience beyond the AGT region and in support of the wider BP," Bob Fryar stressed.

"It is our firm intention to continue our success in the region through even closer cooperation with [the state oil company] SOCAR, the government and our partners," Fryar said. "To achieve this, we will continue to focus on safety, maximization of production and intensification of performance."

Rashid Javanshir, a first Azerbaijani president of BP Azerbaijan, has 17 years of leadership experience in BP, culminating in becoming Regional President for Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey in 2009.

Prior to being appointed as the President of BP Azerbaijan, Javanshir served as the executive vice president of the company. He was responsible for all onshore operations in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) and the Shah Deniz gas project.

New appointments

Recently BP Azerbaijan announced new apointments in the company, regarding all of them as "planned". According to spokesperson Tamam Bayatli, the recent staff changes had been planned carefully and for a long time.

A new vice president on wells, Jim Cowie, was appointed at BP Azerbaijan on October 17. Cowie previously held a similar post in a BP project in the North Sea.

Cowie will succeed from November 15 Gary Christman, who became vice-president of the BP's Global Wells Institute.

Another vice president of BP Azerbaijan -- on export pipeline operations, Kemp Copeland, retired a week before Christman.

BP also announced the appointment of Craig Wiggs as Vice President of Operations Midstream in Azerbaijan, effective from January 1, 2013.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at a recent cabinet meeting criticized BP, saying serious mistakes of the BP-operated international consortium, Azerbaijan International Operating Company, have led to a sharp decline in oil production on Azeri and Chirag fields, which are part of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli development in the Caspian Sea. Aliyev said BP failed to meet the production target in 2009-12, which resulted in Azerbaijan's receiving $8.1 billion less in direct revenue.

A landmark agreement on developing the ACG fields was signed with 13 energy majors from eight countries in Baku in 1994. ACG participating interests are: BP (35.83%), SOCAR (11.65%), Chevron (11.27%), Inpex (10.96%), Statoil (8.56%), ExxonMobil (8%), TPAO (6.75%), Itochu (4.3%), and Hess (2.72%). Hess has sold its share in the project to India's ONGC, and the transaction will be completed in the first quarter of 2013.

In response to the criticism, BP Azerbaijan said that the company is fully committed to Azerbaijan and working with SOCAR to address the ACG production issues as quickly as possible.

According to SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev, reasons for the decline in ACG production are technical.

BP Vice President Fryar said in October that the company is going to bring its best resources around the world to increase production at the ACG block of oil fields.