After tying another knot on October 6, BP and oil-rich Azerbaijan decided that they are in it for keeps, or at least for “decades to come.” In a deal that will help the energy multinational recover from its $11.2 billion Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP gained the right to develop a major deepwater natural gas field in the Caspian Sea.
“This is an important day for Azerbaijan and BP,” pronounced Robert Dudley, who has replaced beleaguered Tony Heyward as BP’s chief executive officer. “It marks the beginning of our bilateral cooperation in exploration and development of a new offshore block.”
Azerbaijan’s dowry could be as much as 500 million cubic meters of gas, the estimated size of the Shafag-Asiman field's treasure chest. The 50-50 production-sharing agreement complements BP’s Azerbaijani collection, which already includes the Shah Deniz gas field, which supplies Azerbaijan's Turkey-bound export pipeline.
Partnership with BP helped pluck Azerbaijan from post-Soviet obscurity and establish itself as a world-scale energy-producer. Now Baku hopes that the pact will help lend extra muscle to Azerbaijan’s energy exports, which currently trail behind its production output. Azerbaijan's annual production of gas is expected to reach 30 billion cubic meters in 2010.
Giorgi Lomsadze is a journalist based in Tbilisi, and author of Tamada Tales.
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