ONGC arm to buy Hess' stake in Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli oil field

ONGC Videsh Ltd will buy US energy firm Hess' stake in Azerbaijan's giant Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) oil field for an undisclosed amount.

OVL, the overseas arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), has reached an agreement to buy 2.72 per cent stake held by Hess in the largest oil field in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian basin, sources privy to the development said.

As part of the deal, the company will also buy Hess' 2.36 per cent stake in BTC export pipeline.

The deal may be announced shortly, the sources said.

UK's BP plc is the operator of the fields with 34.1 per cent stake. Other partners include Chevron (10.2 per cent), SOCAR (10 per cent), INPEX (10 per cent), Statoil (8.6 per cent), ExxonMobil (8 per cent), TPAO (6.8 per cent), Devon (5.6 per cent) and ITOCHU (3.9 per cent).

The ACG field lies 120 km off the coast of Azerbaijan in 120 meters of water and contains 5.4 billion barrels of recoverable oil. The overall investment in the fields has reached USD 20 billion, which includes the amount spent on the BTC export pipeline.