BP and SOCAR (the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan) announced today they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to jointly explore and develop the Shafag and Asiman structures in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea.
As part of the government’s plan to ensure that all of Azerbaijan’s offshore waters are fully exploited this MOU gives BP the exclusive right to negotiate a production sharing agreement to explore and develop the block, which lies some 125 kilometers (78 miles) to the south east of Baku.
The MOU was signed today in London, in the presence of HE Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, by Rovnag Abdullayev, President of SOCAR, and Andy Inglis, BP’s CEO of Exploration and Production.
The block covers an area of some 1100 square kilometers and has never been explored before. It is located in a deepwater section of about 650-800 meters with reservoir depth of about 7000 meters.
Tamam Bayatly in BP’s Baku office, tel: +994 12 599 4557
Toby Odone in BP’s London Press Office, tel: +44 (0)20 7496 4076