Azeri president visits Japan

A visit to Tokyo by Azeri President Haydar Aliyev in February could lock up a key agreement for four Japanese firms aiming to tap the rich oil reserves of the Caspian Sea.
Aliyev, who last August came away from a visit to the United States with $ 10 bn worth of new oil deals, plans to visit Tokyo for top level meetings from February 24 to 27, Japan's Foreign Ministry said.
The Azeri president's visit will be preceded by an entourage including Azerbaijan's Prime Minister Artur Rasizade, who will be in Tokyo for The World Bank Consultative Group Meeting for Azerbaijan as well as talks with Japanese oil company executives.
Last March, a Japanese oil consortium signed a memorandum of understanding with the State Oil Co of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) to carry out exploration in the Yanan-Tava, Atashgah and Mugandeniz fields in the south Caspian Sea, about 120 km southwest of Baku.
The consortium, comprised of Itochu Oil Exploration Co Ltd, Indonesia Petroleum Ltd (INPEX), Japan Petroleum Exploration Co Ltd (JAPEX) and Teikoku Oil Co Ltd, hopes to sign a production sharing agreement with Aliyev during his visit to Tokyo, a Teikoku Oil spokesman told. The agreement would represent the first time for an all-Japanese consortium to explore for oil in the Caspian Sea.
State-run Japan National Oil Corporation (JNOC) has been acting as a facilitator in the talks.
The fields, occupying a zone about 500 sq km in size and about 30 to 40 km offshore, are thought to possess some 650 million barrels of oil. Water depths in the area are 100 to 120 meters.

Senior SOCAR officials estimate overall Azeri reserves at about 2 bn tonnes of crude, in addition to 7 trillion cubic metres of natural gas.
As a member of the Azerbaijan International Operating Consortium (AIOC), Itochu Oil Exploration Corp already has a 3.92 % stake in a key Caspian project.
AIOC, which also includes BP, SOCAR, Amoco, Unocal, Exxon, Ramco Energy Plc, Saudi Arabia's Delta Nimir, Turkish Petroleum Corp and LUKoil, signed in 1994 what was hailed as the "contract of the century." The three AIOC fields are thought to contain at least 650 mm tonnes (5 bn barrels) of recoverable reserves. The fields, expected to reach output of 700,000 to 800,000 bpd by 2007-10, pumped their first oil last November 7.
Last August, duringhis US trip, Azerbaijan's Aliyev signed oil deals with U.S. oil producers Exxon, Mobil and Chevron said to be worth $ 10 billion.
Aliyev, who ruled Azerbaijan for Moscow during the Soviet era and was a Soviet Politburo member under Leonid Brezhnev, has maintained that Azerbaijan's economic future rests squarely on the development of its oil sector in the 21st century.
Deals already signed between Azerbaijan and world oil majors to tap 9 areas in the republic's sector of the Caspian are worth $ 30 bn.