Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 19
By Kamala Mammadli - Trend:
As many as 740 million tons of oil have been extracted in Azerbaijan over the past 25 years, including eight months of this year, that is, since the signing of the contract on the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block of oil and gas fields in the Caspian Sea in 1994, Azerbaijan’s Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov said at a press conference at the headquarters of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party, Trend reports Sept. 19.
He said that during this period, $101 billion was invested in the oil and gas sector, including $36 billion in the ACG.
“As many as 492 million tons of oil and 161 billion cubic meters of gas were extracted from the ACG block,” Shahbazov added.
He said that thanks to the signing of a new agreement on the development of the ACG block of oil and gas fields, investments may exceed $40 billion in the next 32 years.
He added that a profit of $143 billion was achieved from the ACG project.
A production sharing agreement (PSA) dubbed “the Contract of the Century” was signed between Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR and a consortium of 11 foreign oil companies from six countries for a period of 30 years.
Following ratification of the PSA, the Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC) was formed to implement the agreement on behalf of the foreign shareholders working in partnership with SOCAR and the government of Azerbaijan.
Initially, the company included 11 major foreign oil companies (BP, Amoco, Unocal, LUKoil, Statoil, Exxon, TPAO, Pennzoil, McDermott, Ramco, Delta Nimir), representing six countries - the UK, the US, Russia, Norway, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
In 2017, the agreement was extended until the middle of this century.
The current participating interests of ACG are as follows: BP (30.37 percent), SOCAR (25.0 percent), Chevron (9.57 percent), INPEX (9.31 percent), Equinor (7.27 percent), ExxonMobil (6.79 percent), TPAO (5.73 percent), ITOCHU (3.65 percent), ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) (2.31 percent).