RWE, SOCAR to Study Potential for Oil off Azerbaijan

German utility RWE said it had signed an agreement with Azeri state energy company SOCAR to examine the potential for oil and gas under the shallow waters off Azerbaijan's Caspian coast.
 

RWE said on Wednesday the joint study would make a geological and geophysical evaluation in order to identify exploration opportunities in the area, which covers 850 square kilometres off the Absheron peninsula, south of Baku.
 

RWE did not provide an estimate of the area's reserve potential other than to say the basin is near other "world class oil and gas discoveries".
 

"The agreement gives us the opportunity to deepen our knowledge about the sub-surface in an highly prolific area of the Caspian Sea," Hans-Hermann Ecke, RWE senior vice president, said in a statement.

(Reporting by Margarita Antidze and Nailia Bagirova; editing by Jane Baird)