BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 12
By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:
The US Exxonmobil company, which currently holds 6.79 percent share in the project for development of Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block of oil fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, produced 13,000 barrels per day of liquids (net production) from the block in 2019, Trend reports referring to the company’s data.
The company’s 2019 production remained unchanged from 2018. This is while in 2017, Exxonmobil’s net production of liquids from ACG stood at 17,000 barrels per day.
The company produced 22,000 barrels per day from ACG in 2016 and 2015 each, while in 2014, this figure stood at 18,000 barrels per day.
Exxonmobil’s share in ACG was reduced from 8 percent to 6.79 percent in 2017 with the extension of the ACG production sharing agreement (PSA) to 2049.
In 2019, the company announced its intention to sell its assets in Azerbaijan and recently, it has revived the sale of its stakes.
Some sources said that China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), India’s ONGC and Indonesia’s Pertamina have shown interest in acquiring those assets.
ExxonMobil, for its part, told Trend that the company is testing market interest for its non-operated producing assets in Azerbaijan following interest expressed by third parties to acquire its assets.
"We continually review our assets for their contribution toward meeting the company’s operating needs and financial objectives. If other companies find more value in an asset, we will sell," said the company.
Recently, Hungarian MOL Group acquired US Chevron’s share in ACG.
ACG participating interests are: BP (30.37 percent), SOCAR (25 percent), MOL (replaced Chevron as of 16 April 2020 (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).
Total Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) production for the first quarter of 2020 was on average about 524,000 barrels per day (b/d) (about 48 million barrels or more than 6.4 million tonnes in total).
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn