Turkey, Azerbaijan, BP in Caspian Sea oil and gas production deal

Turkish state oil company TPAO will sign a gas production-sharing agreement with Azerbaijan's SOCAR and BP for the Shafaq-Asiman offshore block on the Caspian Sea, Turkey's energy minister said on Monday.

"Today, we are taking further steps with the signing of a major agreement that will increase our oil and gas production in Azerbaijan," Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said at the Baku Energy Week conference.

TPAO's share will be 30 per cent and there are also "talks on other fields" Bayraktar said, according to a ministry statement, which added that the agreement will be signed on Tuesday.

The Shafag-Asiman block is 125 kilometres (78 miles) southeast of Baku and at depth of 650-800 metres, according to SOCAR's website. The first exploration well was drilled in 2020.

(Reporting by Nailia Bagirova and Can Sezer; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and David Evans)