ONGC Videsh acquired stake in Azerbaijan fields for 1 billion Dollars

ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) on 8 September2012 announced that it had bought US energy company Hess Corp’s stake in in Azeri, Chirag and Guneshli (AGC) group of oil fields for 1 billion Dollars.

According to the officials, OVL has signed definitive agreements for the acquisition of Hess Corp's 2.7213 per cent participating interest in the Azeri, Chirag and the deepwater portion of Guneshli fields in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea and 2.36 per cent interest in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline for 1 billion Dollars.

ACG, which is located in the South Caspian Sea, about 95 Km off the coast of Azerbaijan, is the largest oil and gas field complex in Azerbaijan and one of the largest producing oil fields in the world.

The acquisition would bring 9 per cent additional proven reserves to OVL portfolio. While the AGC field has total reserves of over 6.5 billion barrels, the 1768-Km BTC pipeline is one of the main export routes for Caspian crude oil production to the Ceyhan terminal in the Mediterranean Sea in south east Turkey, with a capacity of around 1.0 million bpd. UK's BP plc is the operator of the ACG fields with 34.1 per cent stake.

Other partners include Chevron (10.2 per cent), State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR 10 per cent), Inpex (10 per cent), Norway's Statoil (8.6 per cent), ExxonMobil (8 per cent), Turkish national oil company TPAO (6.8 per cent), Chevron (5.6 per cent) and Japanese Itochu (3.9 per cent).