So far the foreign companies involved in the exploration operations in Azerbaijan invested approximately $1bn. The work enabled Azerbaijan to obtain important data on the field and reserves, as well as other important data, Khoshbakht Yusifzade, the First Vice President of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), told Trend.
The majority of the exploration work fell on the companys own risks. It is explained with their conduct in unexplored field and blocs. In general the foreign companies, active in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian, drilled 48 exploration wells.
As a result of exploration work done thus far, the reserves if the ACG grew considerably. Though during the signing of an agreement in 1994 the reserves were estimated to 500 million tons of oil, at the figure reaches 900 million tons.