Azerbaijan, Baku, June 24 / Trend/
The Azerbaijani parliament adopted a law on approving a resolution for the first amendments to a contract on exploration, development and production sharing of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) offshore fields, initially signed in 1994.
The State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) intends to acquire part of the Devon stake from British BP. Devon was formerly involved in the project and sold its assets in Azerbaijan.
The parliament adopted contract amendments given that in practice, all contracts for PSA in Azerbaijan should be ratified by Parliament and carry the rule of law.
The amendments to the contract will allow SOCAR to acquire part of the Devon stake from British BP, as well as create conditions for the signing of a contract between SOCAR and BP.
This project is very profitable and the company has approached this issue from the standpoint of commercial benefits.
Devon sold its 5.63 percent share in Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli in 2010 to its project partners - BP (3.29 percent), Chevron (0.99 percent), Inpex (0.96 percent) and Itocu (0.38 percent).
Currently the participation share of the operator BP in Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli is 37.43 percent, Chevron - 11.27 percent, Inpex - 10.96 percent, AzACG - 10 percent, Statoil - 8.56 percent, Exxon - 8 percent, TPAO - 6.75 percent, Itocu - 4.3 percent and Hess - 2.72 percent.
In 2010, Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli produced 40.6 million tons of oil compared to over 40.3 million tons in 2009. Production of oil from this block in 2010 averaged 823,100 barrels per day.