ONGC Videsh inks pact with Azerbaijan's SOCAR Trading

India's state-run explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp said on Tuesday that its overseas arm ONGC Videsh Ltd has signed a pact with the trading arm of Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR to venture into oil trading.

The MoU was signed on May 27 at Geneva, the company said in a statement here. "The objective of the MoU is to explore possibilities of joint marketing of OVL's crude oil portfolio by leveraging SOCAR Trading's experience in oil trading," it said.

"Based on the performance of this agreement both parties will mutually agree to optimise price realisation of other crudes from OVL's portfolio either through joint marketing or joint venture route," it said.

SOCAR Trading, the international marketing arm of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, was incorporated in December 2007 with a mandate to market oil produced from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field and other surrounding fields in Azerbaijan.

Initially, OVL's share of oil from the Azeri, Chirag and Guneshli (ACG) group of fields in Azerbaijan will be traded through the new venture.

British major BP-operated ACG fields are located about 100 km east of Baku and is the largest oilfield in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian basin. It produced an average 634,000 barrels per day (31.3 million tonnes in total) oil in 2015. OVL has 2.72 per cent stake in the field which it had bought from US energy firm Hess for about $1 billion.

--IANS

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