Azernews.Az

The fall in oil and gas production on the block Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli should not occur so early, first vice-president of Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR Khoshbakht Yusifzadeh said at the meeting of the Caspian-European Integration Business Club (CEIBC) on Monday.

"Less than half the reserves of the field were developed on the block and so there shouldn't be such an early fall in production," Yusifzade said.

He noted that one of the reasons of fall in production on the block is safety work and increase alerts and risk prevention policy, which were organized by BP (operator of the field) after the problems that arose with regard to the company's operations in the Gulf of Mexico

"The work of the platforms was suspended in order to improve the safety of the production, which is also justified in terms of avoiding accidents and difficulties in the Caspian Sea," the vice president said.

He noted that work is being carried out for the normalization and stabilization of production, so that production volumes 2013 were not less than in 2012. It requires the drilling of new wells, and commissioning of the old ones that are idle, Yusifzade said.

"All of this work will help to normalize the production on the block, but it will take time," he said.