Azernews.Az

Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR will present a preliminary version of a new contract on the project to develop deep water gas on the block in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea to the partners of Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG), a senior SOCAR official told Trend news agency on Monday.

He said work on the draft version of the contract is almost complete.

"We are already completing the preparation of the draft. Preparing the draft does not mean that it will be signed, because it should still be agreed. After completion we will present it to BP and other partners, following which the negotiation process will begin. I think we will come to an agreement," he said.

At present, oil reserves of ACG are developed based on the PSA contract. However, according to the SOCAR official, the contract to be signed by all of the participants of the project will be signed in a new format.

"This will be an agreement in a new format, a Risk Service Agreement (contract with a minimum guarantee of compensation). Approval will be in the same form and we will approve it in parliament," he said.

SOCAR head Rovnag Abdullayev said earlier that the basic principles of the commercial development project for the deep water gas has already been agreed. Until late 2012, the company plans to sign a relevant contract with its ACG partners.

Shareholders in the ACG project are: BP (operator - 35.83 per cent), Chevron (11.27 per cent), Inpex (10.96 per cent), SOCAR (11.6 per cent), Statoil (8.56 per cent), Exxon (eight per cent), TPAO (6.75 per cent), Itocu (4.3 per cent) and Hess (2.72 per cent).