Details added (the first version was posted at 15:50)
Azerbaijan, Baku, April 4 / Trend, E. Ismayilov /
SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) and Norway's Statoil have agreed to jointly develop the Zafar-Mashal prospective structure in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, a source on the oil and gas market told Trend.
A source said the signing of the agreement on the basic principles on the Zafar-Mashal structure is expected during the World Economic Forum Strategic Dialogue on the Future of the South Caucasus and Central Asia to be held in Baku on April 8.
The first contract for the development of the prospective Zafar-Mashal offshore structure was signed between SOCAR and U.S. ExxonMobil on April 27, 1999. The State Oil Company had a 50 percent stake in the equity and ExxonMobil - 30 percent. In 2000, the remaining 20 percent was transferred to Conoco Phillips of the U.S.
Investment in the project is estimated at $2 billion, and the predicted oil reserves - at 140 million tons, of which 100 million tons account for 'Zafar' and 40 million tons - for 'Mashal'.
The contract was closed due to discovery of commercially unattractive volumes of hydrocarbons.
SOCAR geologists estimate reserves on this structure at 300 billion cubic meters of gas and 37 million tons of condensate.