Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 31
By Maksim Tsurkov – Trend:
Since the signing of the agreement on the development of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block of oil and gas fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea in 1994, the total costs for the ACG project amounted to about $43.5 billion, said Vice-Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament Valeh Alasgarov.
Alasgarov, who is also the chairman of parliamentary committee for natural resources, energy and ecology, made the remarks at a plenary meeting of the Azerbaijani Parliament on Oct. 31.
He said that the main text of the new ACG deal signed Sept. 14, 2017, doesn’t differ from the previous contract, however, the new deal reflects a number of important points.
“The capital expenditures for the ACG project since 1994 amounted to about $35 billion,” he noted. “Azerbaijan received income in the form of profitable oil worth about $130 billion from the project, payments of contractors from the profit tax amounted to about $15 billion, and about $6 billion was received by AzACG (subsidiary of Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR) from its share in the agreement.”
He added that Azerbaijan received 42 billion cubic meters of associated gas free of charge from the contract area.
To date, more than 500 million tons of oil are yet to be extracted on the contract area, Alasgarov said. He expressed confidence that these volumes will increase as the oil is extracted.
He also stressed that according to the terms of the new ACG deal, Azerbaijani citizens should constitute not less than 90 percent in technical staff of contractor companies, and not less than 95 percent in the companies’ personnel.
“Besides, if new free natural gas deposits are discovered, SOCAR will have the exclusive right to develop them,” Alasgarov noted.
On Oct. 31, Azerbaijan’s Parliament ratified the new agreement on the development of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block of oil and gas fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.
The new ACG participating interests are as follows: BP - 30.37 percent; AzACG (SOCAR) - 25 percent; Chevron - 9.57 percent; INPEX - 9.31 percent; Statoil - 7.27 percent; ExxonMobil - 6.79 percent; TP - 5.73 percent; ITOCHU - 3.65 percent; and ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) - 2.31 percent.
The agreement will remain in power until December 31, 2049.