BP to close West Azeri platform for maintenance on May 21

The company said in an e-mailed statement:  

"In accordance with the plan, production from the West Azeri platform will be suspended on 21 May for about 22 days to enable efficient maintenance, inspection and project work to be undertaken. This work will maintain the ability of the platform to produce in a safe, reliable and environmentally sound way. 

"This is a routine, planned programme and is part of normal operations. The planning for the programme started in early 2014 and these activities are included in the annual work programme and budget.  The shut-down is also included in the annual production forecast. 

"Production from the Central Azeri, East Azeri, Chirag, Deepwater Gunashli, West Chirag and Shah Deniz, as well as export operations via BTC, SCP and WREP will continue as normal. The Sangachal Terminal will continue to operate. Loadings at Ceyhan will also continue in accordance with the lifting schedule. 

"These planned events deliver routine inspection, maintenance and project delivery activities. They are a necessary part of the long term safety, reliability, integrity, environmental and production performance, driven by repair and facility modification work that can only be performed during a plant outage."