Equinor Set to Explore Azeri Block
Norway’s Equinor is preparing to launch seismic exploration on Azerbaijan’s offshore Ashrafi-Dan-Ulduzu-Aipar block, a company official said on March 13.
Equinor will start 2-D& 3-D seismic surveys in July, the company’s seismic exploration project manager Jans Olav told a conference in Baku. The work is expected to take up to 50 days.
Azerbaijan's state-run Socar and Equinor signed two contracts on offshore gas blocks in May 2018. The first deal was a production-sharing agreement (PSA) on the Ashrafi-Dan Ulduzu-Aypara block. A service contract for the Karabagh gas field was also inked.
Karabagh and Ashrafi each contain 20bn-30bn m3 of reserves. The two other fields have yet to be explored. Equinor and Azerbaijan’s state-run Socar will form a 50-50% joint venture to operate the block.
The Norwegian firm has a 7.27% stake in BP-operated Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block (ACG) as well.