SOCAR official: Talks underway with foreign companies on joint development of Umid and Babek fields

Baku. 19 February. REPORT.AZ/ “Many foreign companies are also expressing interest in development of Umid and Babek fields together with SOCAR and we are in talks with them.”

Report informs, SOCAR deputy vice president for investments and marketingthat Vitaly Baylarbayov told the Reuters.

Baylarbayov said that the agreement between SOCAR and Statoil on the Karabakh offshore oil and gas field could be signed this year.

Notably, Umid is located 75 km south of Baku and 40 km of the shore. The bed was discovered in 2010. This was the first field discovered by SOCAR. According to preliminary estimates, the total reserves of the field make 200 billion cubic meters of gas and 40 million tons of condensate.

Notably, Risk Service Agreement between the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) and SOCAR Umid Oil&Gas Ltd for exploration and development of offshore block, including Umid field and Babek prospective structure in Azerbaijani sector of Caspian Sea and the Agreement between SOCAR Umid Oil&Gas Ltd and Umid, Babek Exploration&Production for conduction of oil and gas operations for exploration and development of offshore block, including Umid field and Babek prospective structure in Azerbaijani sector of Caspian Sea was signed on January 12, 2017 and approved by the Azerbaijani Parliament on May 2, 2017.

On December 20, 2017, SOCAR and Statoil agreed on the key principles of prospective cooperation on risk-based services for the development of the Garabagh field.

Referring to the Southern Gas Corridor project, Baylarbayov said that the first commercial gas will be delivered to Turkey by the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) in early July this year.

“We can say now that the (SGC) pipeline will be put into operation on time, in 2020,” Baylarbayov said.

He noted that earlier this month, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EIB) invested $ 1.5 billion in TAP adding that the consortium will continue to seek funding for the project.

Baylarbayov also said that the Southern Gas Corridor can be expanded in process of Absheron, Umid and Babek fields development in Azerbaijan.