Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR has started developing an oil field in Uzbekistan. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said this at a trilateral meeting with the President of Uzbekistan and Chairman of the Khalk Maslakhaty of Turkmenistan in Turkmenbash on 22 August.
We have traditional energy cooperation with Turkmenistan. We have already entered this sphere with Uzbekistan. Our state oil company SOCAR has already started developing an oil field in Uzbekistan and the contract has already been signed,” Aliyev said.
According to him, Azerbaijan expects to receive “good news” about the results of the work within the next year or two. “We are all looking forward to news about the discovery of a large oil field in Uzbekistan,” he said.On 24 July this year Uzbekistan and Azerbaijani state company SOCAR signed a production sharing agreement (PSA) on the Ustyurt Plateau.
Investments in the project are estimated at $2bn. Over the next five years, SOCAR, the project operator, will conduct 3D seismic survey over an area of at least 1,000 square kilometres and drill at least one exploration well. If a commercial field is discovered, the parties will proceed to its development. According to forecasts, the reserves could be up to 100 million tonnes of oil and 35 billion cubic metres of gas.