US majors’ planned Caspian exit puts Baku in a bind
Azerbaijan may find it much tougher to find investment after the departure of Chevron and ExxonMobil
The start of commercial gas deliveries to Turkey from the Shah Deniz 2 field last July imbued Azerbaijan's hydrocarbons sector with a sense of positivity. But 2018 ended on a downbeat note when reports emerged that Chevron and ExxonMobil intended to withdraw from the largest Caspian oilfield development, Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli (ACG). The planned exit of these US majors comes at a tricky time for the Azeri government. Baku needs to maintain the flow of investment into exploration and production at a time when political risk in the Caspian region is mounting. This is due, in part, to the intensified sanctions squeeze being imposed on neighbour Iran by the administration of US presiden
Also in this section
25 April 2024
Some companies with assets in Israel have turned towards Egypt as tensions escalate, but others are holding firm despite rising tensions
24 April 2024
But even planned exploration activity is unlikely to reverse declining output from mature fields
23 April 2024
Cheaper Russian barrels and lower overall crude prices have helped cut key oil consumer’s import bills in election year
22 April 2024
Pursuing three different goals as part of the same package may mean achieving none of them