Companies and countries reconsider past unprofitable ventures...
According to the president of the Azeri state oil company, the development of the Karabakh and Ashrafi-Dan Ulduzu oil blocks on the Caspian Sea shelf, which were abandoned in the late 1990s, could be economically profitable under current oil prices.
International oil consortiums carried out exploration works at the blocks but refused to develop them due to insufficient oil reserves, he said adding that in 1998, when the blocks were explored, the oil price plummeted to U.S. USD 10 per barrel.
However, under the current oil price of about USD 25 per barrel they would not have abandoned the plans to develop the blocks, he said adding that all the rights to develop the blocks were transferred to the Azeri government.
He did not rule out the possibility that Azerbaijan would develop the blocks independently. If the international oil consortiums decide to come back, we would hold negotiations on different conditions then in the late 1990s, he said.
An oil consortium, controlled by Russia's oil major Lukoil, invested about USD 120 million in the exploration works at the Karabakh block, while an oil consortium, comprised of BP, the U.S.' Unocal, Japan's Itochu, and Saudi-U.S. Delta Hess, invested USD 64.5 million in exploring Ashrafi-Dan Ulduzu.
