Baku, Azerbaijan, May 31
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
The contract on the development of the block of Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) oil fields will be extended next month, Gary Jones, BP regional president for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, told reporters in Baku May 31.
“We do not rush but I think the end of June is the right time to sign a contract,” he said, adding that it is a big deal.
Jones said that the investments in the project, in which BP will remain the operator, will increase as a result of the extension of the contract.
“When the companies know that a contract will soon expire, they usually cut investments for understandable reasons,” he said. “While extending the contract on ACG until 2050, we will get more investments because in this case the companies will be able to extract more reserves.”
Jones has not specified the amount of investments to be made in the further development of deposits.
He also added that BP is thoroughly considering the variant of using a new drilling rig of Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company SOCAR in the future and is discussing the issue with the company’s representatives.
SOCAR and BP-operated Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC) signed a letter of intent (LOI) December 23, 2016 for the future development of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea.
The LOI agrees the key commercial terms for the future development of the ACG field.
A contract for development of ACG block of oil and gas fields was signed in 1994. The proven oil reserves of the block near one billion tons.
The shareholders in the project are BP (operator of the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli, 35.78 percent), Chevron (11.28 percent), Inpex (10.96 percent), AzACG (11.65 percent), Statoil (8.55 percent), Exxon (8 percent), TPAO (6.75 percent), Itochu (4.3 percent) and ONGC (2.72 percent).