Socar’s Caspian Well Still Burning. BP Offers Help

British oil giant BP has offered help to Azerbaijan’s national oil company Socar to put a burning Caspian Sea well under control.

The well #No90 went out of control on Saturday night when natural gas started flowing uncontrollably from it and caught fire.

“We’re ready to accept BP’s help, which is very experienced in these matters,” Socar president Rovnag Abdullayev has been quoted as saying.

According to APA-Economics, Abdullayev said that the fire is still burning at the Bulla Deniz field location. He said that the most probable cause of the incident was high pressure.

The company has evacuated all personnel from the platform. No injuries to the crew have been reported. Firefighting vessels have surrounded the platform, but the attempts to extinguish the fire have, so far, been unsuccessful.

In a statement issued Sunday, Socar said that preparations were underway to kill the out-of-control well.

The Bulla Deniz gas field, in production since 1975, is located near the Bulla Island in the Bay of Baku, Caspian Sea. The field was the largest gas discovery in Azerbaijan before discovery of the Shah Deniz gas field.