Rosneft Eyes Azeri Gas, Oil Pipeline Use

Russia's Rosneft wants to increase its presence in Azerbaijan, courted by the European Union for its gas, by joining a gas project and using a pipeline for its oil shipments.

Vitaliy Baylarbayov, deputy vice-president at Azeri state oil company SOCAR, told Reuters Rosneft, Russia's top crude producer, might seek a stake in the Absheron gas project and could use the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline for its oil deliveries to Europe.

"Rosneft has an interest and is considering participation in the Absheron project," Baylarbayov said.

"If they finally make this decision, we would review it and I am sure make a positive decision."

Rosneft and SOCAR signed a joint-venture agreement last month, which provides for oil and gas exploration and production projects in Azerbaijan and Russia, crude swap operations, and joint use of infrastructure.

SOCAR and the French oil company Total, the project operator, each hold 40 percent of the project to develop Absheron, a shallow-water offshore field on the Caspian Sea, under production-sharing agreements. The remainder is held by the French company GDF Suez.

Exploratory drilling by Total showed the field contained 150 billion to 300 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas. The find was declared commercial in 2012.

Gas production at Absheron is expected to start in 2020-2021.

Rosneft has said it was studying options in Azerbaijan but did not comment on potential participation in specific projects.

Baylarbayov said that Rosneft could follow Russia's No.2 crude producer Lukoil and use the BTC pipeline for its oil exports.

Lukoil sent its first tanker of crude to Azerbaijan with 20,000 tonnes to be delivered to Europe via the BTC last month. The company plans to ship the same amount of oil every month until the end of 2014.

"Rosneft has also an interest of shipping its oil via the BTC," Baylarbayov said.

He added that SOCAR was also interested in participation in projects together with Rosneft in Russia and beyond, but did not specify the projects.

(By Margarita Antidze, Editing by William Hardy)