The Norwegian company Equinor’s interest in an Azerbaijani oilfield and related pipeline was purchased by the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation’s (ONGC) foreign investment arm, ONGC Videsh Ltd, for $60 million, the company announced.
The formal sale purchase agreement (SPA) between OVL and Equinor for the direct acquisition of 0.615 percent participating interest (PI) in the offshore Azeri Chirag Gunashli (ACG) oil field in Azerbaijan has been signed. Additionally, the deal provides for the wholly-owned subsidiary ONGC BTC Limited to acquire 0.737 percent of the Baku Tbilisi Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline company’s shares,” the statement continued.
The acquisitions, which could require up to $60 million in total investment, are anticipated to be finished in the following months.
At the moment, OVL owns 2.31% of the ACG field and 2.36% of the BTC pipeline. Its stake will increase as a result of the Equinor takeover.
The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) will purchase all of Equinor’s remaining assets in Azerbaijan, the company stated in December of last year.
In the Azerbaijan section of the Caspian Sea, the assets included a 7.27 percent non-operated interest in the Azeri Chirag Gunashli oil oilfield, an 8.71 percent interest in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, and a 50% interest in the Karabakh field.
SOCAR already owned 50% of Karabakh, a 25.0% share in BTC through Azerbaijan BTC Limited, and a 25.0% share in ACG.
How Eqinor ended up selling a 0.737 percent stake in the pipeline and 0.615 percent stake in the oilfield, after having committed to sell SOCAR its whole stake, is unclear. This was left out of the statement.
In the beginning, in March 2013, OVL purchased a 2.72% share in ACG.
Field partners and SOCAR announced an agreement in September 2017 to extend the ACG contract until 2049. The multinational oil corporations’ holdings were decreased, with OVL’s interest dropping from 2.72 percent to 2.31 percent, in accordance with the restated and updated production sharing agreement (PSA) for the extension period.
With a 30.37 percent interest, BP is the field operator. ExxonMobil and Japanese companies split the remaining interest in the field.
“Operated by the oil firm BP since 1999, ACG is a super-giant offshore oil field located in the Caspian Sea. Phased development of the field has resulted in the commissioning of Azeri Central East as the seventh production platform in early 2024, according to the statement.
Oil from the Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli (ACG) field and condensate from Shah Deniz are transported by the Baku-Tbilisi Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline through Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkiye. It connects the Ceyhan marine port on the Turkish Mediterranean coast with the Sangachal terminal on the Caspian Sea’s beaches.
From Vietnam to Venezuela, OVL is involved in 32 oil and gas projects throughout 15 nations. With these assets, it now produces about two hundred thousand barrels of oil and oil equivalent natural gas per day.