Azernews.Az

Norwegian Statoil has signed an agreement with Azerbaijani state oil company Socar on geological and geophysical work evaluation of a shallow water area north-west of the Absheron Peninsula, which covers the capital Baku and surrounding districts, Statoil Azerbaijan said in a statement. According to senior vice president for Exploration International at Statoil, Nick Maden, the Joint Study Agreement (JSA) with Socar is also an important step in deepening the cooperation between the two companies.

``Statoil has been present in Azerbaijan for over twenty years and through this JSA we look forward to sharing our technological and exploration experience on our way to possible operatorships for Statoil in Azerbaijan,`` President for Statoil in Azerbaijan Lars Troen Sorensen said.

According to Sorensen, the company has established an exploration team in its Baku office, which is looking at the possibility of identifying new opportunities in the Azerbaijan sector of the resource-rich Caspian Sea, and this JSA will require a solid commitment from both parties.

Statoil, which entered Azerbaijan in 1992, is the second largest foreign investor in the country. The company has invested more than $5 billion, and is a partner with 8.56 percent share in the oil producing Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field, the Shah Deniz gas field with 25.5 percent share, and the pipelines Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) and South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP), which export Azerbaijani energy resources to world markets.