Issue of delimitation of Caspian Sea fields has been raised for over 10 years: Azerbaijani expert

This issue has already been raised for over 10 years, head of the Fund for Entrepreneurship and Market Economy Development Assistance and SOCAR's ex-President Sabit Bagirov said.

This issue is solved via talks between Caspian countries. This issue is unlikely to be considered in the international arbitrage.

Turkmen President Berdymuhammedov said there are disagreements over Kapaz (Serdar), as well as Azeri and Chirag (Osman and Omar fields between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.

However, development of Kapaz border field discovered in Soviet times by Azerbaijani geologists, is not implemented now. Despite it, Azerbaijan repeatedly offered Turkmenistan joint development of the field.

Baku is sure that Turkmenistan has beneficial interest in development of Kapaz field together with Azerbaijan. First of all, it is explained by presence of strong infrastructure for construction and transportation of extracted hydrocarbons. Several huge offshore oil and gas projects, including construction of platforms for oil and gas extraction in the sea were realized in Azerbaijan. There are special companies equipped with the necessary equipment and qualified staff and work experience to construct such facilities in the country. There is no such infrastructure in Turkmenistan.

Moreover, Azerbaijan has strong transport infrastructure: Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline pumps oil to the Mediterranean Sea. There are Baku - Supsa and Baku - Novorossiysk pipelines, as well as possibility to deliver oil by railway to the Black Sea ports of Batumi and Kulevi in Georgia. Moreover, Azerbaijan has South Caucasus gas pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum), which is regarded as a component of the Nabucco pipeline, which will deliver gas to Europe.

According to the Azerbaijani Ministry of Industry and Energy, extractive resources of Kapaz field total 50 million tons of oil. The field was discovered by Azerbaijani oil industry workers in Soviet times. It was called intermediate, as it was situated between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.

Regarding development of Azeri and Chirag fields, these fields are developed now by consortium of the biggest foreign companies, including BP, ExxonMobil, Statoil. Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli fields account for major oil production in Azerbaijan. These fields havenever been considered as disputable by either companies involved in the project or by Azerbaijan.

Situation with the contract for development of Araz-Alov-Sharg can serve as example. BP, ExxonMobil and Statoil are also involved in development of these fields. After Iran voiced territorial claims, the project was frozen. Its implementation is connected with solving the Caspian status.

/Trend Capital/