Azerbaijan, Baku, May 6 / Trend M. Aliyev /
The Azerbaijani Parliament ratified the contract for exploration, development and production sharing of offshore block Shafag and Asiman, signed by SOCAR and British BP on October 7, 2010.
The SOCAR and BP signed the PSA for a period of 30 years. The exploration period is 4 years with possible prolongation for another 3 years. The first stage of exploration works envisions drilling of two wells. The second one assumes drilling of two more wells, if necessary. As the sides go over to the production stage, they will operate the project jointly. The two companies hold equal interests in the project.
The reserves of field Asiman-Shafag are estimated at 300-500 billion cubic meters of gas.
"Shafag" and "Asiman" structures are located 125 kilometers to the south-east of Baku. SOCAR and BP signed a memorandum on "Mutual understanding" on the joint exploration and development of "Shafag" and "Asiman" in London in July 2009.
Exploration work has not been conducted on the block before. It is located in the depth of 650-800 m. with the depth of the reservoir at 7,000 meters.
BP is the main foreign oil investor in Azerbaijan. It heads the projects to develop the block of oil and gas fields "Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli" and gas condensate field Shah Deniz. BP is also an operator of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Supsa pipelines.