BP commits to Azerbaijan

BP, through the Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC), on Friday inked a letter of intent (Lol) with SOCAR that will see the company commit to the further development of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) field.

Under the Lol, the two parties agreed on principle to develop the super-giant field until 2050, 26 years beyond the duration of the existing 30-year production-sharing agreement signed in 1994. According to BP, production from the ACG field currently averages 620,000 boepd.

“We have been in negotiations with ACG’s foreign partners for some time. We will complete fully-termed agreements in the near future,” Rovnag Abdullayev, President of SOCAR, said in a statement. In addition to operator BP, shareholders in AIOC are Chevron, ExxonMobil, INPEX, ITOCHU, ONGC Videsh, Statoil and Turkish Petroleum.

Also commenting on on the agreement, BP CEO Bob Dudley said the Lol “opens up an exciting opportunity to the middle of the century for us to continue this extraordinary partnership.”