Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 21
By Maksim Tsurkov – Trend:
Norway’s Statoil company and Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR will soon sign more detailed agreements on cooperation, a source in Statoil told Trend Dec. 21.
According to the source, Statoil is very pleased with the recent signing of agreements of intentions on the main principles of cooperation with SOCAR.
"Statoil has been operating in Azerbaijan for 25 years and 2017 has become a jubilee year for us,” the source said. “After the extension of the agreement on the development of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block of oil and gas fields, we are pleased to take the next step and stress serious intention to make investments into new joint opportunities in upstream sector together with SOCAR."
According to the source, Statoil looks forward to working with SOCAR to develop the Karabakh oil field and other offshore fields in the Caspian Sea.
"We hope for further cooperation with SOCAR and we will contribute to the development of the Azerbaijani oil and gas industry through the introduction of our technologies and working approaches," the source said. “The concluded agreements of intentions will serve as the basis for further detailed commercial agreements with SOCAR. We will concentrate our efforts on the preparation of detailed agreements.”
SOCAR and Statoil have recently signed two contracts on main principles of cooperation.
As a result of long discussions and consultations, specialists developed and agreed upon the main principles of prospective cooperation related to a Risk Service Contract (RSC) for the development of the Karabakh oil field, as well as a PSA (production sharing agreement) on various prospective structures, the message said.
The first contract covers issues of exploration, development and main commercial principles and provisions of the PSA on some promising structures in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, while the second contract covers main commercial principles and provisions of the RSC regarding the Karabakh oil field.
The Karabakh field was discovered in 2000. Its initial oil reserves amount to 100 million tons. SOCAR operates Karabakh field’s development.
