Princely aims for the Caspian

Yashar Latifov, vice president for field development at Azerbaijan’s Socar, outlines the firm’s ambitious upstream development plans

Azerbaijan celebrated in September the 25th anniversary of the ‘contract of the century’—the landmark Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) production sharing agreement signed with 11 international oil companies (IOCs) in 1994.  ACG has been transformative for Azerbaijan’s oil and gas sector. With $36bn invested by the ACG partners over the years, it helped re-establish one of the world’s oldest hydrocarbons provinces as a major energy supplier, producing more than 3.6bn bl of oil thus far.  Twenty-five years on, Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company Socar’s exploration and production challenge has evolved. While ACG’s contract period has been extended to 2049, Yashar Latifov tells Petroleum Economist