Azerbaijan's SOCAR, Hungary's MOL sign memorandum on Shamakhi-Gobustan field

BAKU. Sept 23 (Interfax) - State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR) and MOL Hungarian Oil and Gas have signed a memorandum of understanding on exploration and production at the onshore Shamakhi-Gobustan oil and gas field.

"The memorandum was signed in Baku on Friday during an event to mark the 30th anniversary of the Contract of the Century to develop the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block," SOCAR told Interfax.

Under the document, which was signed by SOCAR president Rovshan Najaf and MOL Oil and Gas CEO Zsolt Hernadi, "the companies will cooperate on further increasing hydrocarbon production in Azerbaijan," SOCAR said.

MOL Azerbaijan managing director Attila Somfai said earlier that investment in Azerbaijan's energy sector has exceeded $2 billion, but the company expects to further increase its investments and is counting on long-term cooperation.

MOL has a 9.57% stake in the ACG project in Azerbaijan and an 8.9% stake in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline. The company also works with SOCAR on supplying lubricants and increasing oil recovery rates.

The company's capital expenditures in Azerbaijan dipped 1.2% year-on-year to HUF24.1 billion ($66.7 million) in the first half of 2024, which amounted to 45% of all its investments in projects worldwide in this period. MOL has production operations in eight countries and is doing exploration in 14 countries.