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BP says not affected by Azerbaijan oil platform accident

A BP logo is seen at a petrol station in London January 15, 2015. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor/Files

BAKU (Reuters) - British oil company BP said on Monday its operations in Azerbaijan were not affected by a deadly accident at one of the platforms in the Caspian Sea operated by Azeri state energy company SOCAR.

SOCAR said one worker was killed, 29 missing and 33 rescued after its oil platform caught fire on Friday. Those missing are feared dead.

"Fire did not affect BP's work as this platform is far away from our platforms," Tamam Bayatly, a spokeswoman for BP Azerbaijan, told Reuters.

BP operates the main oil fields in Azerbaijan and the bulk of total oil production in the country comes from these fields.

The fire started on Friday after a storm caused a partial collapse of one of the facilities on the oil rig, damaging a natural gas pipeline.

About 60 percent of SOCAR's oil production passes through this platform, meaning the state company's output will be temporarily hit. Daily production at the platform was 920 tonnes of oil and 1.08 million cubic metres of gas.

(Reporting by Nailia Bagirova; Writing by Margarita Antidze; Editing by Lidia Kelly and Mark Potter)