Statoil Operations in Azerbaijan

=Overview=

Statoil’s activities in Azerbaijan are among its biggest commitments in a single country. In Azerbaijan’s sector of the Caspian, Statoil partakes in oil production from the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli fields and in gas production and exploration at the Shah Deniz field, and at the Alov, Araz and Sharg gas fields.

As of May 2012, Lars Sorenson headed up Statoil in Azerbaijan. 25% of the company's 60 employees at the Baku office are expatriates.

In January 2013 Statoil's Lars Christian Bacher told press that the company aims to expand its presence and play a bigger role in Azerbaijan, stating that "our ambition is to build up our business, strengthen our position and gain an operatorship", citing a "very good dialogue with SOCAR."

=Activities=

ACG
Statoil participates in the ACG field as a partner in the Azerbaijan International Operating Company (AIOC). Statoil holds a share of the license worth 8.56 percent.

Shah Deniz
At the Shah Deniz fields, Statoil was one of seven oil companies that signed a production sharing agreement in June 1996. The field came on stream in December 1996. Statoil and BP are the biggest shareholders of the field, each with a share 25.5 percent.

Statoil is the operator of the Azerbaijan Gas Supply Company (AGSC) and through this has the commercial leadership for the Shah Deniz gas field sales.

ALov, Araz and Sharg
Statoil signed a product sharing agreement with the national government regarding the Alov, Araz and Sharg gas fields in July 1998 and holds a share of the license worth 15 percent.

Other projects
Statoil is a partner in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, which runs from Baku to the Turkish port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean, and serves as the commercial operator for the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP), which runs parallel with the BTC to the Turkish-Georgian border. BTC is operated by BP while Statoil holds a share license worth 8.71 percent.

Press reported in early 2013 that Statoil was in talks with state oil company SOCAR on participation in a new giant project developing the Umid-Babek-Zafar-Mashal cluster of fields, centred on the Umid gas discovery. This would be based on a similar model to the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) project.. This followed a visit by Statoil's international development and production chief Lars Christian Bacher to Baku.

=References=