BAKU, Sept 29 (AFP) - An Azeri-Turkish consortium is to invest more than 600 million dollars (487 million euros) in renovating a century-old onshore oil field in the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, under an agreement signed Wednesday.
The AZEN consortium -- made up of Azeri petrol refiner Azpetrol and Turkish construction company ENKA -- is to invest the cash in the Binagadi field, near Azerbaijan's capital, Baku.
Estimates put recoverable reserves at the field at 12.8 million tonnes. Under the terms of the agreement, the consortium is to invest 618 million dollars over a twenty-five year period.
The field was first discovered more than one hundred years ago. Production reached its peak during the Second World War. But since then output from its ageing wells has declined steadily.
The AZEN consortium will take a 70-percent stake in the field, with the rest held by Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR, according to a press release from the consortium.
SOCAR President Natiq Aliyev said the deal -- and the involvement of Azpetrol -- was a landmark. "For the first time an Azeri company is participating as an investor in such a project," he said.