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SOCAR and Total will fix a date for Absheron offshore block contract in January

23 December 2008 14:28 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Nijat Mustafayev - APA-Economics. In January, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and Franceâ€™s Total will set a date in January, 2009 for signing a contract on the Absheron Block in the Caspian Sector of Azerbaijan.
Vagif Aliyev, SOCARâ€™s head of international investments, said the negotiations between the parties will soon be completed.
In June, Franceâ€™s Total signed an agreement with State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), setting out the main conditions and commercial principles of a exploration, development and production sharing agreement for Absheron offshore oil and gas block.
Under the deal, Total will be the operator of the Absheron Block, with a 60 percent interest and SOCAR will holding 40 percent.
The block, estimated to contain enormous volumes of gas and condensate, has revived great interest against the backdrop of increasing demand globally.
Total (20%), U.S. energy firm Chevron Corp. (CVX) (30%) and SOCAR (50%) had previously signed a deal in 1997 to develop the Absheron field while Chevron and Total abandoned the project in 2001 after drilling the first well, saying it wasnâ€™t commercially viable.
The foreign companies compensated SOCAR and the contract terminated in 2005.