UPDATE 1-Socar calls force majeure as Azeri oil output drops

(Combines production decline, force majeure)

By Lada Yevgrashina

BAKU, Sept 24 (Reuters) - A further drop in Azeri oil production following a gas leak last week has prompted state oil firm Socar to declare force majeure on some shipments, a Socar source said on Wednesday.

The source at Socar said the country's Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) fields in the Caspian Sea were currently producing 300,000 barrels per day (bpd), or a third of their usual 900,000 bpd.

The development aggravates problems at the BP Plc-led (BP.L) group that produces almost all Azerbaijan's oil, a month after it suspended production following an explosion on a key pipeline to Turkey and a brief war between Russia and Georgia.

As production and exports to Turkey resumed this month, the group had said it was confident it would meet its output target.

But the gas leak near an offshore platform last week forced it to halt production at two installations and halve output.

BP-Azerbaijan declined to comment on the report that output had declined further and on the force majeure. Last week, BP in London said that output at the ACG fields was cut to around 40 percent of its rate before the gas leak.

The Socar source said force majeure had been declared on three crude export cargoes it had sold to traders Sumato and Glencore, which had been due to load from the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan between the end of September and mid-October.