MOL Group and SOCAR have signed a complete onshore exploration, growth and manufacturing sharing settlement protecting the Shamakhi-Gobustan area of Azerbaijan, strengthening their long-standing upstream partnership within the Caspian area.
Beneath the settlement, MOL Group will function operator with a 65% working curiosity, whereas SOCAR will maintain the remaining 35%. The totally termed deal follows a preliminary alignment reached by the businesses in June 2025 and formalizes plans for joint hydrocarbon exploration within the onshore basin.
The settlement was signed in Baku by MOL Group Chairman and CEO Zsolt Hernádi and SOCAR President Rovshan Najaf. The challenge expands MOL Group’s worldwide upstream portfolio and reinforces its strategic presence in Azerbaijan, the place the corporate already holds pursuits in main offshore and export infrastructure belongings.
As a part of the following part of the challenge, the companions plan to start seismic acquisition in early 2026, with exploration drilling to observe at a later stage, topic to outcomes and regulatory approvals. The Shamakhi-Gobustan space is taken into account underexplored and presents potential for brand spanking new onshore discoveries utilizing fashionable seismic and drilling strategies.
MOL Group entered Azerbaijan in 2020 by way of the acquisition of a minority stake within the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) discipline and an efficient curiosity within the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. The ACG asset represents a good portion of MOL’s present manufacturing and reserves, whereas the BTC pipeline performs a key function in supplying crude to the corporate’s refining system in Central and Jap Europe.
The brand new onshore settlement builds on this current footprint and displays MOL Group’s technique of leveraging technical experience in reservoir administration and manufacturing optimization to assist long-term vitality safety and portfolio diversification. For SOCAR, the partnership helps continued growth of Azerbaijan’s hydrocarbon sources by way of collaboration with skilled worldwide operators.
