Tony Hayward, BP Group Chief Executive, paid a one-day working visit to Azerbaijan on July 6.
During his visit Mr Hayward met with the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan HE Ilham Aliyev briefing him on the current status and plans for BP-operated projects in this country.
Mr Hayward re-iterated BP’s commitment to Azerbaijan and to continuing successful cooperation with the government and SOCAR. Mr Hayward once again highlighted the importance of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli and Shah Deniz oil and gas development, as well as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and South Caucasus Pipeline projects to Azerbaijan, the region and global energy markets. Mr Hayward also emphasized the significance of continued exploration activities in the Caspian to the energy future of the region.
Mr Hayward specifically extended his congratulations to President Aliyev on the recently achieved agreement between the governments of Azerbaijan and Turkey on the sale of Azerbaijani gas to Turkey and its transportation to the European markets through the territory of Turkey. Mr Hayward commented that Shah Deniz full field development represented one of the most important projects in BP and as operator the company was looking forward to progressing it at pace.
Mr Hayward then visited SOCAR witnessing the signing of a document called Heads of Agreement (HOA) which defines the basic commercial principles for a Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) for the Shafag and Asiman offshore block. This agreement follows the signing in London on July 13th, 2009 of the memorandum of understanding between SOCAR and BP to jointly explore and develop the Shafag and Asiman structures in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea.
Tamam Bayatly, BP Baku Press office, telephone: +994 12 599 4557