Oil & gas news

US ALLOTS GRANT TO STUDY TERMINAL CAPACITY

The Azerbaijan minister for fuel and energy Majid Karimov and the US ambassador to Azerbaijan Ross Wilson signed an agreement on allocation of a $600,000 grant from the US Trade and Development Agency to study the possibility of oil transit through the Dubandi terminal. The amount will be spent on investigating the possibility of expanding the terminal in case Aktau is joined to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

The signing was witnessed by the Azerbaijan President Heydar Aliyev and Assistant US Secretary of State Elizabeth Jones.

HOVSAN, ZYKH TO BE PASSED TO LUKOIL

Under the agreement between SOCAR and Russian Lukoil on restoration and development of offshore Zykh and Hovsan fields, SOCAR will pass all the oil-producing equipment of the fields to Lukoil. This procedure is expected to complete on September 1, a source from SOCAR told Azernews Monday.

The fields, a part of the "Gum Adasi" oil and gas producing unit, give around 280,000 tons of oil a day. SOCAR recently drilled a new well flowing at a daily rate of 50,000 tons in the Zykh-Hovsan license area.

In the Zykh-Hovsan PSA, SOCAR and Lukoil each hold 50% interest stakes. The PSA was ratified by the Azerbaijan parliament in June of this year.

GEORGIA BRUSHES OFF FAILED TALKS REPORT

The Black Sea Press news agency has interviewed a Georgian Foreign Ministry spokesman Kakha Sikharulidze in the wake of media reports suggesting that the Azeri-Georgian talks in Baku last week over the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline construction project were a complete failure.

"What kind of a failure can we talk about if the Georgian Foreign Minister Irakliy Menagarishvili, who also leads the state commission on the pipeline project, did not hold any talks in Baku in this regard", he said.

The foreign ministry spokesman added that Mr. Menagarishvili's visit mainly had to do with preparations for Georgian President's visit to Baku.

"While in Baku, the Georgian minister only met with President Aliyev and his Azeri counterpart Guliyev", Mr. Sikharulidze said. The parties did touch upon the pipeline related matters, but no decisions were to be made.

"In about a week the parties' experts will get together to try to come to an understanding ahead of the signing of the inter-governmental agreement", he said.

According to a SOCAR source, however, the Georgian delegation did meet with SOCAR specialists.

LOCAL STAFF UNDER-PAID

A number of foreign companies active in Garabaglar settlement of Salyan do not pay salaries to local workers for months, according to a local resident Azer Agayev.

He said this was practiced by Salyan Oil operating company's contractors. A. Agayev indicated that as a result of a recent incident several people were injured in street clashes.

"We have managed to cope with the conflict, but public discontent is growing. Workers are being used without a prior conclusion of agreements and with serious violations of the legislation. Besides, the salaries of AZM300,000-400,000 are unseen for the oil industry. Salyan Oil has already sacked over 300 personnel since signing agreement with SOCAR. We had hoped that the agreement would partially resolve local unemployed problems, but what happened was different", he said.

POPULATION UNHAPPY WITH "SALYAN OIL"

Residents of the Garabagli settlement, the region in the vicinity of the "Salyan Oil"-operated Garabagli-Kursangi license area, are unhappy with the work the company has unfolded in their neighborhood.

At present, "Salyan Oil" is involved in exploratory drilling operations, while the drilling cuttings and reservoir waters are dumped in public places, gas and other harmful substances burnt, population not being warned of the vibration of the earth resulting from drilling operations. Besides, a section of a nearby pipeline has been damaged, which has led to the flooding of a local cemetery.

Local residents claim to have tried to contact the company executives more than 20 times, but without much success.

In the meantime, people from a neighboring Garachol village say as a result of the company's operations a huge portion of arable land has turned unfit.

RAMCO EXPANDS OIL & GAS TEAM

Ramco Energy plc (Ramco), the energy and oil services group focused on exploration and production, has announced that it has expanded its oil and gas team with the appointment of Ian C. Phillips, to the post of Vice President of Project Development. Ian who is a Director on the Board of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), joins Ramco from the Halliburton Company, where he was Director of Strategic Business Development for Well Dynamics International Limited, a 50/50 Shell/Halliburton joint venture focused on the 'intelligent completion' business.

Ian, aged 44, has over 22 years of petroleum engineering and oil industry experience.