Tatas, IOC team up for Azerbaijan buy

The Tatas have joined hands with state refiner Indian Oil and exploration firm Oil India to consider bidding for acquiring Caspian Energy Group's (CEG) interest in an Azerbaijan oil field.

Tata Petrodyne, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons, has joined the IOC-OIL combine to make a bid to buy CEG's 51 per cent stake in the Shivran Oil Operating Company that runs the Kyurovdag oil field in Azerbaijan, industry sources said. Tata Petrodyne official could not be immediately reached for comments.

The company is the vehicle for Tata Group's foray into the oil and natural gas industry. ONGC-Mittal Energy (OMEL), the joint venture of ONGC Videsh and steel baron Lakshmi N Mittal's group, had in May made a $300 million bid for the stake but the deal was cancelled after reports of the bid appeared in the media.

Caspian Energy has since then not been able to find a buyer and had in fact gone back to OVL, the overseas arm of state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), to stitch a deal.

It was not immediately clear if OVL or OMEL will take a second look at Caspian Energy.

The remaining 49 per cent stake in Shivran Oil Operating Company is held by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR).

Sources said the Kyurovdag onshore oil field was discovered and first developed by USSR in 1955 and Shivran has been operating it since June 1996. The field is believed to hold an in-place oil reserve of 4.3 billion barrels, of which 800 million barrels are recoverable.

The field, which is currently producing 4,517 barrels of oil per day, is estimated to produce a minimum of 146 million barrels during 2007 and 2030, 51 per cent of which will belong to Tata-IOC-OIL upon its winning the CEG bid.

The production is slated to rise to 13,300 barrels per day in 2010 after which it will start declining to reach 2,200 barrels per day in 2030, they said. The field is well past its historical peak of 43,000 barrels per day, reached in 1965.