BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 25. Hungarian company MOL is keen to enter Azerbaijan's flagship gas condensate project, Shah Deniz, an informed source told Trend.
“MOL has started negotiations with Azerbaijan on a possible buyout of part of its stake in the Shah Deniz project. Azerbaijan is represented in the project through the Southern Gas Corridor Company (SGC), with a total stake of 21.02 percent. The outcome of the negotiations depends on commercial aspects,” the source said.
Additionally, MOL currently participates in the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli Caspian field block development project (9.57 percent share) and in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline (8.9 percent share).
The current shareholders in the Shah Deniz project are bp (29.99 percent), Southern Gas Corridor (21.02 percent), LUKOIL (19.99 percent), Turkey's TPAO (19 percent), and Iran's NICO (10 percent).
These companies have the same stakes in the SCP South Caucasus Pipeline.
“Shah Deniz reached its peak production last year—26 bcm of gas per year. The field is now capable of producing 79 million cubic meters per day. Hungary mainly buys gas from Russia but is looking at new gas assets around the world, including in Azerbaijan,” the source explained.
MOL has been involved in ACG and BTC since 2019 through the acquisition of stakes from Chevron for $1.5 billion.
To note, MOL's investments in this project amounted to $2 billion over 4.5 years.
Overall, MOL has been operating in the world's oil and gas industry for 80 years and has projects in 30 countries.
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