MOL inks gas exploration deal in Azerbaijan

Hungary’s MOL Group, along with its joint venture partners, has signed commercial agreements to advance the development of significant gas reserves in Azerbaijan’s Azeri-Chirag-Deepwater Gunashli (ACG) field.

MOL, the third-largest shareholder in the ACG field after SOCAR and BP, is working within an amended production sharing agreement framework to explore, appraise, and develop these newly identified non-associated gas reservoirs, which are estimated to contain up to 112bn cubic metres of gas.

Drilling has already commenced from the West Chirag Platform, with the first gas production expected by 2025. This initial well will provide critical data to support future development strategies. The agreements were formalised during a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the original ACG Production Sharing Agreement in Baku, east Azerbaijan.

SOCAR, MOL CEOs ink MOU

MOL Chairman-CEO Zsolt Hernadi and SOCAR CEO Rovshan Najaf also signed a Memorandum of Understanding on further opportunities in the Shamakhi-Gobustan region, with MOL committing its expertise and resources to bolster Azerbaijan’s hydrocarbon industry.

Hernadi said “Today is an important milestone for MOL Group as after years of developing and producing oil fields in Azerbaijan, we extend our footprint by entering into gas reservoir development. This is thanks to the outstanding cooperation with SOCAR and the partners of the ACG project.

“This is also a great day for the economic cooperation between Azerbaijan and Hungary and thanks to the excellent governmental relations between our countries… ACG is our crown jewel as it is the largest international contributor to our hydrocarbon production. Also, MOL’s participation in the project is the flagship economic connection of the two countries,” he said.

“Moreover, ACG also plays a key role in the security of energy supply of Central Europe. The production of the field gives us crude oil sourcing flexibility for our refineries both in Slovakia and Croatia so the whole region benefits from this partnership,” Hernadi added.

MOL Group’s 9.57% stake in ACG and its 8.9% stake in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline remain unchanged, the company wrote in a press release.