Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 10 / Trend E.Ismayilov /
The Azerbaijani Caspian Drilling Company Ltd. (CDC) and Israeli ACC Holdings International and B H Shemen Oil and Gas exploration 2010 (ACC Group) have signed an agreement on basic principles in the framework of their participation in a project to develop the Shemen offshore perspective structure in Israel, CDC CEO Farid Akhundov told Trend. The structure is located 15 kilometers from the Ashdod city in the Israeli sector of the Mediterranean Sea.
The CDC, in which the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) has a 92.44 percent stake, will be the operator of the project.
Akhundov said the CDC has participated in all offshore PSA projects in Azerbaijan, including the opening of the Shah Deniz gas and condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, where the company acted as the principle contractor of the project operator, BP Azerbaijan.
The company has extensive experience drilling in offshore fields. In particular, it has been actively involved in drilling operations on the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli bloc of oil and gas fields and the Shah Deniz Field.
"They want to use our potential and our experience to successfully study the Shemen prospective structure. We have signed a basic agreement under which we act as an operator and the operator has some equity in the project," Akhundov said.
Currently, Akhundov said, the Israeli Infrastructure Ministry is considering the inclusion of the CDC into a license to work on a forward-looking structure owned by the ACC Group. Under the terms, work on the prospective structure will commence by late 2012.
According to Akhundov, the parties conducted negotiations and then decided to sign a basic document, and then to continue work developing toward a contract.
This is the first project in which an Azerbaijani company is acting as an operator for the exploration and development of promising structures abroad.