BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 2. Japan’s INPEX CORPORATION (INPEX) has signed a share purchase agreement (SPA) following an agreement to acquire 49 percent of the shares in INPEX South West Caspian Sea Petroleum Co., Ltd. (ISWCS) held by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) through an open bid, making ISWCS a wholly owned subsidiary of INPEX, Trend reports via INPEX,
Through ISWCS, INPEX owns a participating interest in the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) Contract Area in the Caspian Sea offshore Azerbaijan, where it is engaged in crude oil development and production operations.
“The ACG project is a quality asset from which INPEX has generated stable profits and cash flow for more than 20 years, and this additional acquisition of ISWCS shares is expected to further strengthen INPEX’s earnings base. INPEX will continue to work toward maximizing the value of the project, including maintaining production levels in the Contract Area and expanding its proved reserves,” said the company.
INPEX is Japan’s largest exploration and production (E&P) company, engaged in the development and operation of oil and gas projects worldwide.
ACG participating interests are: bp (30.37%), SOCAR (31.65%), MOL (9.57%), INPEX (9.31%), ExxonMobil (6.79%), TPAO (5.73%), ITOCHU (3.65%), ONGC Videsh (2.92%).
BP Exploration (Caspian Sea) Limited is the operator on behalf of the Contractor Parties to the ACG Production Sharing Agreement.
The latest data from bp shows that during 2025, ACG continued to safely and reliably deliver stable production. Total ACG production for the full year was on average about 330,000 barrels per day (b/d) (about 120 million barrels or 16 million tonnes in total) from the Chirag (21,000 b/d), Central Azeri (90,000 b/d), West Azeri (76,000 b/d), East Azeri (43,000 b/d), Deepwater Gunashli (51,000 b/d), West Chirag (24,000 b/d) and ACE (25,000 b/d) platforms.