BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 12. The expert group created by Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan is currently holding discussions on working out the necessary documents for Dostlug field in the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan’s energy ministry told Trend.
“According to the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of Turkmenistan on joint exploration and development of hydrocarbon resources of the Dostlug field in the Caspian Sea, a Joint Working Group was established to develop a draft intergovernmental agreement. An Expert Group was established under the Working Group to prepare a draft agreement and other project documents. Discussions are underway within the Expert Group to prepare these documents,” said the ministry.
On January 21, 2021, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan signed a memorandum on joint development of the Dostlug field in the Caspian Sea. Dostlug is a new name of the field that is located on the border of Azerbaijani and Turkmen sectors of the Caspian Sea. It was known as Kepez in Azerbaijan and Sardar in Turkmenistan. The negotiations on the joint development of the field were held before.
It is an oil and gas field and SOCAR supposes that its reserves can be approved by carrying out modern methods of seismic exploration and probably, exploratory drilling. It is necessary to outline many technical and commercial issues related to the future development of this field. The memorandum is the first step towards reaching this goal.
Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan will prepare a new intergovernmental agreement. Within the future agreement the resources of the field will be distributed between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan in the ratio of 30 to 70 percent, respectively. A joint working group will be set up to prepare the agreement in the near future.
In February 2021, the Parliament of Azerbaijan approved the memorandum of understanding on joint exploration, development and study of hydrocarbon resources of the Dostlug field.
In June 2021, Russia’s Lukoil company said it is holding the negotiations to join the Dostlug project.
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