SOCAR, Statoil agree on development of prospective structure in Caspian Sea: source
Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR and Norway's Statoil have agreed to jointly develop the Zafar-Mashal prospective structure in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, a source on the oil and gas market told Trend news agency.
A source said the signing of the agreement on the basic principles on the Zafar-Mashal structure is expected during the World Economic Forum to be held in Baku on April 7-8.
The first contract for the development of the prospective Zafar-Mashal offshore structure was signed between SOCAR and U.S. ExxonMobil on April 27, 1999. SOCAR had a 50 percent stake in the equity and ExxonMobil - 30 percent. In 2000, the remaining 20 percent was transferred to Conoco Phillips of the U.S.
Investment in the project is estimated at $2 billion, and the predicted oil reserves - at 140 million tons, of which 100 million tons account for Zafar and 40 million tons - for Mashal.
The contract was closed due to discovery of commercially unattractive volumes of hydrocarbons.