The Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) have signed an agreement in which Equinor will divest all its remaining assets in Azerbaijan to SOCAR. The assets comprise a 7.27% non-operated interest in the Azeri Chirag Gunashli (ACG) oil fields in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea, an 8.71% interest in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline and a 50% share in the Karabagh field. SOCAR already holds a 25% stake in ACG, a 25% stake in BTC via Azerbaijan BTC, and 50% in Karabagh. Equinor has been present in Azerbaijan since 1992. ACG, operated by the UK’s BP, is the largest oilfield in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian basin and the BTC pipeline is used to transfer crude oil to the Turkish Mediterranean coast. The closing of the transaction is subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions including all regulatory and contractual approvals.
In 2022, Azerbaijan produced nearly 33 Mt of crude oil and exported close to 23 Mt. It also produced 35 bcm of gas, of which 23 bcm were exported. Its proved reserves stood at 952 Mt of oil and 1,917 bcm of gas as of end-2022.