Azerbaijan, Baku, July 13 / Trend /
BP and SOCAR (the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan) announced today they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to jointly explore and develop the Shafag and Asiman structures in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea, BP reported.
As part of the government's plan to ensure that all of Azerbaijan's offshore waters are fully exploited this MOU gives BP the exclusive right to negotiate a production sharing agreement to explore and develop the block, which lies some 125 kilometres (78 miles) to the south east of Baku. It is located in a deepwater section of about 650-800 metres with reservoir depth of about 7000 metres.
The MOU was signed today in London by Rovnag Abdullayev, President of SOCAR, and Andy Inglis, BP's Chief Executive of Exploration and Production.
BP is a key foreign oil investor in Azerbaijan and leads the project on development of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block and Shah Deniz gas condensate field. BP is also an operator of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.