Azerbaijan’s oil production falls last year, gas output grows

The country pumped 41.9 million tons of oil in 2014, down 2.8 percent from a year earlier, the committee said in a statement on its website.

Production of marketable natural gas grew to 18.7 billion cubic meters from 17.9 billion cubic meters.

The committee gave no reason for the decline in crude production.

BP, the operator of the country’s largest oil deposit of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG), last year closed one of the field’s six platforms (Central Azeri) for four-week planned maintenance.

Azerbaijan’s oil production grew 0.2 percent to 43.1 million tons in 2013 after peaking at 51 million tons in 2010.