The Contract of the Century gets a younger brother

A preliminary contract for the development of gas of deep bedding was

received today by partners to develop the block of offshore fields

"Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli" in Azerbaijan, the head of the State Oil

Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR / SOCAR) Rovnag Abdullayev said.

Abdullayev said that this time the agreement will be signed with a

minimum guarantee of compensation (Risk Service Agreement), in

contrast to the first contract for the development of the "ACG", that

observed a production sharing agreement (PSA). This scheme will increase

the energy reserves of SOCAR, leading to higher assessments of SOCAR, as

international oil and gas companies evaluate companies by their

reserves.

The head of SOCAR said that gas reserves in the deep-lying "ACG" are

estimated at 300 billion cubic meters.

The "Contract of the Century" on the development of a

large offshore field "Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli" was signed in 1994.

Equity participation is distributed as follows: BP (operator

"Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli") - 35.78%, Chevron - 11.27%, Inpex - 10.96%,

AzACG - 11.65%, Statoil - 8 , 56%, Exxon - 8%, TPAO - 6.75%, Itocu -

4.3% and Hess - 2.72% (sells its share of Indian ONGC, the transaction

will be completed in the first quarter of 2013).