"Many companies are interested in participating in the exploration and development of the marine block, which includes the Umid field and the prospective structure of Babak, located in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea."

Yeniavaz.com informs citing President of SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev told Russian bureau of Report in St. Petersburg.

According to him, in the main, negotiations are being held with Total: "At present, proposals are being reviewed. We are mainly waiting for Total's participation in the project. We are currently negotiating with them. "

R. Abdullayev added that Russia's Lukoil company is also interested in this project and materials given to them.

Notably, discussions were held with the management of "Total" on participation in "Umid-Babek" bloc. The possible participation of Total was one of the topics discussed in the meeting between President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyevwith the CEO of Total Patrick Pouyanné in October 2018 in Paris.

President of Lukoil Vahid Alakbarov, also said to journalists this week that they had been negotiating to participate in the Umid-Babek bloc.

Notably, Umid is located 75 km south of Baku and 40 km of the shore. The bed was discovered in 2010. This was the first field discovered by SOCAR. According to preliminary estimates, the total reserves of the field make 200 billion cubic meters of gas and 40 million tons of condensate. SOCAR started gas production from Umid in September 2012.

Risk Service Agreement between the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) and SOCAR Umid Oil&Gas Ltd for exploration and development of offshore block, including “Umid” field and “Babek” prospective structure in Azerbaijani sector of Caspian Sea and the Agreement between SOCAR Umid Oil&Gas Ltd and Umid, Babek Exploration&Production for conduction of oil and gas operations for exploration and development of offshore block, including “Umid” field and “Babek” prospective structure in Azerbaijani sector of Caspian Sea was signed on January 12, 2017, and approved by the Azerbaijani Parliament (Milli Majlis) on May 2.