AZERBAIJAN - The Muradhanli JV.

In May 1998, President Aliyev approved a PSA with Ramco Energy of the UK for a rehabilitation and further development of the Muradhanli onshore field south-west of Baku, where recoverable oil was estimated at 300-500m barrels. Ramco, with 50% in this, was to raise the field's production to 100,000 b/d.

Socar had said that oil in place at Muradhanli's deeper horizons ranged from 3 bn to 5 bn barrels. Ramco later made a conservative estimate, saying it could recover about 10% of the oil in place. However, the UK firm faced technical problems which hindered the operations of its first well, drilled to a depth of about 4,500m.

In October 2000 Ramco's Chairman Steve Remp was quoted as saying: "Geologically, the well results confirm there is substantial oil in place and our ongoing interpretation is encouraging". But later it was said Ramco had to drill a side-track well, which it chose not to do while evaluating work-over options for the first well. Ramco wanted to sell the majority of this stake to another company that would be the operator.