Reuters: Rosneft would like to buy share in azerbaijani gas field

Russian state-run oil and gas company Rosneft would like to buy a share in the Azerbaijani gas field Absheron, a reliable source familiar with the Azerbaijani-Russian talks in field of energy cooperation told Reuters.

According to Reuters, this way Rosneft wants to become Gasprom's competitor in gas export.

In early July during his visit to Baku Rosneft President Igor Sechin met with the administration of State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) and discussed the cooperation issues with President Ilham Aliyev. After that Sechin announced joint plans of the Russian company and SOCAR,but did not disclose details of the future cooperation.

Absheron gas condensate field was discovered in September 2011. After drilling of the first exploration well on the northenr part of the field, Total company, the project operator, announced discovery between 150 and 300 billion cub.m. of gas. However, Azerbaijani geologists expect that resources of the field could be twice more, than it was initially forecasted.

At present the shareholders of the project are Total (operator) - 40%, SOCAR - 40% and Gas de France - 20%.

The first gas is expected to be extracted on Absheron no earlier than 2020.

* According to the local sources, Russian President Vladimir Putin wil visit Baku in August 2013 on his way to Iran. Putin will be acompanied by the Russian delegation comprised of Presidents of Rosneft, Transneft and LUKol companies.-0-