Dubai-based company to provide vessels for Azerbaijani projects

/By Azernews/

By Amina Nazarli

Dubai Topaz Energy and Marine, specializing in providing support to the offshore oil and gas projects, secured a contract with BP Exploration to supply 14 offshore vessels in the Caspian Sea for up to seven years, the Dubai-based oilfield services firm reported on March 3.

The contract with BP Exploration was inked for five years, with two one-year extensions at current market terms. The vessels will mainly serve the giant projects such as Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli (ACG) and Shah Deniz II fields offshore Azerbaijan.

The cost of the contract was not revealed.

Topaz is a leading offshore support vessel company with primary operations in the Middle East and the Caspian Seas region.

The contract for the ACG development was signed in 1994. The proven oil reserve at the block is nearly one billion tons. The Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli block alone produced 12.3 billion cubic meters of gas and 31 million tons of oil last year.

Shares in the contract are as follow: BP (operator) - 35.78 percent, Chevron - 11.27 percent, Inpex - 10.96 percent, AzACG - 11.65 percent, Statoil - 8.56 percent, Exxon - eight percent, TPAO - 6.75 percent, Itochu - 4.3 percent and ONGC - 2.72 percent.

The contract for development of the Shah Deniz offshore field was signed in June 1996.

The field’s reserve is estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas. BP holds 28.8 percent of the contract shares, while AzSD owns 10 percent, SGC Upstream 6.7 percent, Petronas 15.5 percent, Lukoil 10 percent, NIOC 10 percent and TPAO holds 19 percent.