'Activity of foreign companies in Azerbaijan is not under threat'

The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) should intensify control over the work on the block of "Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli" offshore fields, Azerbaijani Industry and Energy Minister Natig Aliyev told journalists on Monday.

He said all the remarks regarding this project, recently made by the head of state about a decline in production on these fields are fair. If partners on the development of the fields plan volumes of production, but the results are much lower, then this indicates that there is a problem, Aliyev said.

Specialists and scientists should together analyze the situation to determine the causes and solutions to the problem, Aliyev said.

He said that no threat exist for activity of foreign companies in Azerbaijan.

Earlier addressing a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers to discuss the results of the country's socio-economic development in nine months of 2012, and outline further priorities, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said that serious mistakes of international consortium (Azerbaijan International Operating Company), operator of which is the company BP, led to a sharp decline in oil production on the Azeri and Chirag fields.

The contract on the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli full field development was signed in 1994.

Participants of the project to develop Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli are: BP (operator - 35.83 percent), Chevron (11.27 percent), Inpex (10.96 percent), AzACG (11.6 percent), Statoil (8.56 percent), Exxon (8 percent), TPAO (6.75 percent), Itocu (4.3 percent) and Hess (2.72 percent). Hess has sold its share to Indian ONGC, the transaction will be completed in the first quarter of 2013.


/Trend/