BP expected to buy into new Azeri offshore fields with SOCAR

Exxon Mobil and Azeri state energy company SOCAR said on Monday they signed a deal agreeing to explore onshore oil and gas production in Azerbaijan, while BP is expected to buy into new Azeri offshore fields, according to three sources.

Azerbaijan's production mainly relies on mature oil fields in the Caspian Sea and the country is aiming to maintain its oil output at around 582,000 barrels per day over the next five years with investment from Western energy companies.

SOCAR is expected to announce on Tuesday the sale of interests in the Karabakh and Ashrafi-Dan Ulduzu-Aypara offshore oil and gas fields to BP, with BP set to become the operator of the Karabakh development project, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

Last year, BP signed a memorandum of understanding with SOCAR on potentially joining these two projects.

SOCAR previously had a contract with Norway’s Equinor on the Karabakh and Ashrafi-Dan Ulduzu-Aypara fields, but Equinor decided to withdraw from the project in 2017 as it refocused on core assets.

Azerbaijan plans to increase natural gas exports by eight billion cubic metres by 2030, President Ilham Aliyev said at the conference on Monday. Azerbaijan exported 25 bcm of natural gas in 2024.

(Reporting by Nailia Bagirova and Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Additional reporting by Shadia Nasralla in London; Writing by Felix Light; Editing by Tom Hogue, Guy Faulconbridge, David Evans and Nia Williams)