BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- BP announced Thursday it has appointed Rashid Javanshir as the president of BP-Azerbaijan, the first Azeri national to lead the company.
Javanshir becomes the first Azeri national to lead BP-Azerbaijan, which operates the massive offshore Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli oil and Shah Deniz gas fields.
It also operates the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, the second longest in the world.
The appointment is part of an effort by BP-Azerbaijan to appoint Azeri citizens to top positions in all parts of its business, the company said.
Andy Inglis, chief executive officer for exploration and production at BP, said the appointment comes as the energy giant prepares to launch the second phase of the Shah Deniz gas field.
The offshore Shah Deniz field has the capacity to produce 318 billion feet of gas from its initial phase, with another 706 billion cubic feet expected from Phase 2 in the next few years.
"Rashid brings a deep technical understanding of the offshore Caspian, together with a broad business perspective developed over the past 14 years with BP," said Inglis.
Javanshir serves currently as the executive vice president of BP Azerbaijan, responsible for all onshore operations in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. He replaces Bill Schrader, who takes over as chief operating officer at Anglo-Russian venture TNK-BP.
