The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) informed Trend that the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) signed by Shirvanoil JV, which performs rehabilitation, exploration and development of onshore field Kurovdagh, has not become effective due to several technical problems. The company will keep drilling wells in contract area upon solving the question of transition to PSA-type contract, the same source added. The drilling operations will be performed by drilling contractor Monument Oil in southern part of Kurovdagh. On 27 July SOCAR established a workgroup to handle passing basic assets of Shirvan Oil JV to Shirvanoil Operating Company. The working group carries out all actions required by the contract on the rehabilitation, exploration and development of the blocs entering the Kurovdagh field, signed by SOCAR, Caspian Energy Group and affiliated company of SOCAR. In compliance with the contract, SOCAR and Caspian Energy Group possess 50% stock in the enterprise each. Amount of suggested investments is $200 to $300mln. Kurovdagh field was discovered in 1929 and has been developed since 1955. So far, the company lifted 36mln tons of oil from the field, while Shirvan Oil has produced only 1.6mln tons of oil since 1997.
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