BP set to keep key Azerbaijan oil fields after deal expires

"We are in talks” on the terms of BP extending its role as operator of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli, or ACG, fields when the existing agreement expires in 2024, Rovnaq Abdullayev, chief executive officer of State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan, or Socar, told reporters in Baku on Friday. He declined to give further details.

Abdullayev’s comments signal a thawing in BP’s relations with the Azeri government, after President Ilham Aliyev three years ago blamed an unexpected decline in oil output from the ACG fields on "grave mistakes” by the British oil producer. Azerbaijan was considering various options for the ACG fields, including making Socar the operator.

BP, the biggest shareholder in the group developing the ACG fields, gets about 5 percent of its oil output from the country, according to a 2014 annual report. A spokeswoman for BP declined to comment on a new deal.

Others in the development group include Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp., Statoil ASA, Turkiye Petrolleri AO, Itochu Corp., ONGC Videsh Ltd. and Socar.