BP and the State Oil Company of the Republic of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) have signed a new production-sharing agreement (PSA) to jointly explore for and develop potential prospects in the shallow-water area around the Absheron Peninsula in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea, BP said in a news release.

The PSA was signed by Rovnag Abdullayev, president of SOCAR, on behalf of the government of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and Gordon Birrell, BP’s regional president for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

The PSA contract area stretches along the margins of the Caspian Basin to the south of the Absheron Peninsula. The acreage features water depths of up to 40 m (131 ft) with potential reservoir depths of 3,000 to 5,000 m (9,843 ft to 16,404 ft), the release said.

Offshore