State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR) will bring in affiliated company SOCAR-Umid for the development of the Umid-Babek block, director of SOCAR's investment department Vagif Aliyev told journalists on Wednesday.


SOCAR in spring of 2014 announced a tender on the exploration and development of the Umid-Babek block.


"We weren't satisfied with the results of the tender, therefore we decided to transfer the risk service contract for the development of the Umid field to the affiliated company SOCAR-Umid. A corresponding agreement with this company will be signed in September of this year," Aliyev said.


He said that after the signing of the contract, SOCAR-Umid will raise financing and contractors for the development of the field.


The Umid-Babek block, located 75 kilometers from Baku in the deepwater portion of Azerbaijan's Caspian sector, contains reserves estimated to total at least 200 billion cubic meters of gas and 30 million tonnes of condensate.


Umid is a focus of SOCAR's attention because it supplies gas for domestic consumers and is also a source of supply for the Trans Anatolia Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) gas pipeline.


SOCAR-Umid is developing the field, the company was founded by SOCAR (80%) and Nobel Oil Exploration and Production Ltd (20%).

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