Statoil keen in broadening activities in Azerbaijan

Source: AzerNews

Norway's Statoil is interested in expansion its activities in Azerbaijan, Senior Vice President for Eurasia, Middle East & Asia in Statoil ASA Torgeir Kydland said at a meeting with State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) President Rovnag Abdullayev.

The launch of exploration work on the Zafar-Mashal block in Azerbaijan's section of the Caspian Sea following the realisation of the giant oil and gas projects such as the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) and Shah Deniz in the Caspian Sea is important for boosting the company's activities in Azerbaijan, Kydland said at the meeting at SOCAR's headquarters in Baku on July 9.

He added that SOCAR and Statoil have been successfully co-operating for over 20 years and the company is pleased with this cooperation.

Touching the decision of the consortium operating the Shah Deniz gas field of Azerbaijan to transport gas to Europe through the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), Kydland said that TAP will bring big benefits in ensuring gas supplies to European consumers.

Rovnag Abdullayev, in turn, said that big progresses achieved in the oil and gas operations carried out within the ACG and Shah Deniz projects.

Noting that the cooperation established between Statoil and SOCAR gives grounds for further expansion of the joint activities on the Zafar-Mashal block, Abdullayev said that the works on the joint projects also run on schedule.

Speaking about the TAP project, he said that this decision once again showed the world that Azerbaijan is committed to the Southern Gas Corridor project.

"We believe that TAP will open big opportunities to increase the role of Azerbaijan in boosting the energy security of Europe," he said.

There were voiced large potential for increased cooperation in the framework of ongoing and planned projects, stressing the importance of defining new prospects to expand it.

According to SOCAR experts, Zafar-Mashal(previously known as D-9 and D-38), a deepwater block located about 110 kilometres southeast of Baku in Azerbaijan's section of the Caspian Sea, contains 300 billion cubic metres of natural gas and 37 million metric tonnes of condensate.

The first contract for the development of the prospective Zafar-Mashal offshore structure was signed between SOCAR and ExxonMobil on April 27 1999. SOCAR had a 50 percent stake, ExxonMobil had 30 percent and ConocoPhillips held the remaining 20 percent. However, the project was closed due to discovery of commercially unattractive volumes of hydrocarbons.

Azerbaijan is the second largest contributor to Statoil's international production as about 20% of international production comes from this Caspian state.

Statoil Azerbaijan started its work in 1992. The company is a partner on Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea. Statoil holds 42.5% of the shares in TAP.

The Shah Deniz consortium made a decision in favour of the TAP to transport Azerbaijani gas to Europe in late June. The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline will bring an initial 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas a year across Albania and Greece, and into Italy. The first gas is expected in 2019.