Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijan’s state energy firm Socar will seek funds from outside sources to buy part of the stake in the country’s giant Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) oil field in the Caspian Sea from its partner in the project, British oil major BP, a Socar official has said.

"The funds drawn will be returned in a short time due to the viability of the project," Socar Vice President Suleyman Gasymov told reporters.

Socar is seeking to buy 1.6 percent of BP’s stake in the ACG project, half of the share that Devon Energy earlier sold to BP.

Gasymov said work was drawing to a close to purchase the shares. Afterwards, the new breakdown of ACG participating interests is to be approved by the Azerbaijani parliament.

Azerbaijan signed an agreement on tapping the ACG field, called "the Contract of the Century", with the world’s energy majors in 1994. ACG shareholders are: BP (operator - 37.4%), Chevron (11.3%), Socar (10%), Inpex (11%), Statoil (8.6%), ExxonMobil (8%), TPAO (6.7%), Itochu (4.3%) and Hess (2.7%).

Socar’s president Rovnag Abdullayev recently said that the company would seek to increase its stakes in the major oil and gas contracts being implemented in Azerbaijan. "From now onward, whoever will put his stake on sale, we will buy it," he said.