Slim pickings for Eastern European offshore

Azerbaijan and Bulgaria are the main areas of European offshore activity east of the North Sea

OUTSIDE the continent’s northwest, the outlook for offshore production in Europe remains subdued, as concerns mount over reduced revenues, weak oil and gas export and delayed investments. In Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea fields, oil production dipped in 2015, falling by just under 1% to 41.7m tonnes (about 0.84m barrels a day). The dip was largely attrib­utable to a fall in production at the Aze­ri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) fields which account for most of the country’s output. ACG production in 2015 was 31.3m tonnes (about 630,000 b/d), 200,000 tonnes lower than the previous year, large­ly due to maintenance shutdowns. More closures are planned. Meanwhile, a fire at a rig operated by Socar in the Gu