Baku News

03 November 2006 [16:56] - Today.Az - Russian oil company RussNeft and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) have signed a production-sharing agreement to develop two oil fields in Azerbaijan, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported Friday.The Govsany-Zykh fields are in the southern part of the Apsheron Peninsula, with recoverable reserves of 12 million metric tons (87 million barrels) of oil. The agreement was signed by RussNeft President Mikhail Gutseriyev and SOCAR President Rovnak Abdulayev. "RussNeft has come to Azerbaijan to stay. This is a truly historic event," Gutseriyev said. He said of the $100-150 million that his company is going to invest in the project, 15% will go into environmental conservation programs. RussNeft, Russia's newest vertically integrated oil company, is among the country's top 10 crude producers. Its recoverable reserves exceed 630 million metric tons (4.6 billion barrels).