Iran, Azerbaijan Discuss OIl, Gas Projects

A delegation led by the boss of Azerbaijan’s state-run Socar, Rovnag Abdullaev (pictured below), met Iran's oil minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh in Tehran over the weekend. An Iranian source told NGW April10 that the sides discussed Socar’s possible involvement in Iran’s oil and gas projects, as well as a gas swap.

Iran has not included Socar on the list of 29 foreign companies qualified for participation in Iran’s oil and gas projects, but Iran has told Socar that it is preparing another list on which Socar will appear.

Socar itself released a report of the meeting including ideas for co-operation. It said: "The parties reviewed the participation of Socar in oil and gas projects in Iran, co-operation in the field of gas trade and the possibility of implementing joint projects in third countries.”

There have been a number of exchanges in the energy sector between the two sides over the last three years and business units from the  two countries have signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) or Co-operation.

Socar has signed MoUs with the National Oil Company of Iran (Nico) and with the Iranian investment company Ghadir. Ghadir is responsible for implementing the gas swap operations between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, which began in October 2016. There is no physical link between the two former Soviet republics, separated by the Caspian Sea but both are linked by pipeline to Iran.

(Credit: Socar)

Azerbaijan was supplied with 294mn m³ of Turkmen gas during October-December. An Iranian source told NGW that the volume has fallen dramatically to 2mn m³/d as Turkmenistan has pushed up the price so high that it is almost no longer profitable for Azerbaijan.

Socar’s first-vice president Khoshbakht Yusifzadeh told journalists earlier that “Iran welcomes Azerbaijan's investments in the development of its onshore deposits, and if Azerbaijan wants to invest in the development of any onshore Iranian field, this will not meet with any objections from Tehran.”

Socar may be able to carry out service projects on the territory of Iran as it has divisions that can conduct 2-D and 3-D seismic surveys, process data and drill onshore and offshore. Naftiran Intertrade Company (Nico) has had a 10% stake in Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz gas field since 1996. 

Azerbaijan desk