SOCAR opens representative office in Turkmenistan

BAKU. Nov 28 (Interfax) - The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) has opened a representative office in Turkmenistan, Azerbaijani Minister of Economy Mikayil Jabbarov posted on social media.

"We participated today, along with SOCAR President Rovshan Najaf, in the opening of the company's representative office in Ashgabat," Jabbarov posted.

Jabbarov noted that the opening of the representative office is to support the company's activities in Turkmenistan, "by implementing the joint interests of our countries in the energy sector."

As previously reported, SOCAR is involved in implementing a number of projects in Turkmenistan, including developing the Dostlug field, transporting oil from Turkmenistan to international markets in transit through Azerbaijan via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, and a number of other areas.

Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan in January 2021 signed a memorandum of understanding on joint exploration, development, and development of the Dostlug hydrocarbon field, whose reserves experts estimate at 50 million tonnes of oil. Lukoil was selected as a project investor.

The field was under dispute for a number of years, with Turkmenistan calling it Serdar and considering it to be its own, and Azerbaijan calling it Kyapaz and challenging its ownership. According to Azerbaijani media, Dostlug's hydrocarbon resources will be distributed at 30% for Azerbaijan and 70% for Turkmenistan under future agreement.