The Statoil Azerbaijan (part of the Equinor group) and Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company SOCAR have signed a Risk Service Agreement (RSA) related to the appraisal and development of the Karabakh oilfield and a Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) for the Ashrafi, Dan Ulduzu, Aypara area. The agreement was signed by President of SOCAR, Rovnag Abdullayev and executive vice president for Exploration in Equinor Tim Dodson.

“Today we enter a new phase of cooperation between SOCAR and Equinor. 25 years of partnership between our companies have laid a solid foundation for efficient cooperation on the new joint projects. These agreements will take on significance, contributing to the stability of oil production and satisfying the growing demand for natural gas in Azerbaijan, while providing raw materials for the processing industry,” said President of SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev.

“The agreements signed today represent a natural next step in the region. This will strengthen our position in a prolific basin and develop growth options. The licenses lie in close proximity to the ACG field in a basin we know well. We now look forward to work on these new exploration projects in partnership with SOCAR,” said Eldar Saetre, President and CEO of Equinor.

Under the current Risk Service Agreement, installation of the platform in the oil field and the first production is expected in 2021. To operate the licenses Statoil Azerbaijan and SOCAR will form a 50-50 joint operating company.

Equinor enjoys 7.27 per cent of the ACG project shares and 8,71 per cent of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) project shares.

The Statoil Azerbaijan is a part of the Equinor group (former Statoil company) which has recently changed its name and which will be soon named Equinor Azerbaijan.

AZERTAC