Statoil ASA and Azerbaijan’s state SOCAR have signed agreements to jointly explore and develop the Zafar-Mashal structures in the Caspian Sea offshore Azerbaijan.
The memorandum of understanding defines the framework under which the companies will explore the opportunities, conduct negotiations, and agree on key commercial principles and terms during the 12 months from the date of memorandum signing.
The Zafar-Mashal structures are 100 km southeast of Baku and south of BP PLC’s giant Shah Deniz gas-condensate field, in which Statoil has a 25.5% interest among other stakes in Azerbaijan (see map, OGJ, Nov. 20, 2000, p. 49).
The Zafar-Mashal structures were previously known as Blocks D-9 and D-38 and are in 550-900 m of water. Azerbaijan early last decade licensed the area to ExxonMobil Corp., which shot 3D seismic but was unable to discover commercial hydrocarbons (OGJ, June 13, 2005, p. 34).