Azerbaijan, Baku / corr Trend S.Aliyev, V.Sharifov / The Korean National Oil Company (KNOC) and the British-Dutch company RD Shell have reached an agreement on the purchase of 20% of Shell's 25%-share in the Production Sharing Agreement on Development and Exploitation in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian, a source from the project said.
Participants in the Inam project operated by BP with a 25% stake are SOCAR with 50% and Shell with 25%.
Thus, after the KNOC's joining to the project the project's participants will be as follows: BP - 25%, SOCAR - 50%, KNOC - 20% and Shell - 5%.
"The deal has not been officially finalized. There is agreement, whereas the documents are still to be signed," the same source said.
Korea intends to purchase 20% from SOCAR's 50% stock in this project. SOCAR decided not to sell its stake in the project at the exploration stage.
SOCAR's refusal can be accounted for by the absence of risks in this stage, because the other two participants in the project, BP and Shell, have undertaken the financing of their stakes in the project at this stage.
The Korean oil company officially said Korean specialists have estimated the technical data and suggested oil reserves in Inam to be quite high, although there is a possible high-risk factor. Therefore, KNOC requested that SOCAR formulate a reserve re-estimation of the field.
There are plans for a second exploration well on Inam, to be carried out most likely in August, at a depth of 6,000m. The first well on the field was liquidated due to problems caused by abnormally high pressure.