BAKU/LONDON — Azerbaijan accused BP of making "false promises" on oil output and said the state had missed out on $8 billion of potential revenues from what is one of the company's biggest projects in the world.
President Ilham Aliyev said he would take "serious measures" — threatening a third battle front for BP as it seeks a settlement over its Macondo oil spill in the United States and is struggling over the fate of its $25 billion Russian venture.
"Azerbaijan has not received $8.1 billion in revenues," Aliyev told his government on Wednesday, accusing BP of "grave mistakes" in planning oil output at the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli, or ACG, fields in the past few years.
"It is absolutely unacceptable … Investors who cannot stick to their obligations and contract terms must learn lessons. Serious measures must and will be taken," Aliyev said, according to a text posted on his website.
Aliyev said the ACG consortium had invested $28.7 billion in Azerbaijan since the 1990s and received revenues of $73 billion.
"Last month BP officially promised to me to fix these negative developments as soon as possible … and more importantly, replace people who made those grave mistakes. A month has passed and I don't see those promises being fulfilled," Aliyev said.
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