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 Azerbaijan Oil Contracts Total Fina Elf 
 Jean-Pierre Dolla, General Manager Elf Aquitaine and Total signed an agreement with SOCAR on January 13, 1997, for the exploration, development and production shari#ng of the Lankaran-Talysh prospects. The event took place in Paris in the presence of Azerbaijan President Heydar Aliyev and French President Jacques Chirac. This is Azerbaijan's fifth international oil consortium and marks a significant step in furthering the relationship between France and Azerbaijan. Later on, Deminex (Germany), Oil Industries' Engineering & Construction-OIEC (Iran) and Fina (Belgium) joined the project. The effective date of the contract is June 30, 1997. The project is operated by Elf Petroleum Lankaran-Talysh.  Signed January 13,1997 
 At the end of 1997, the 3-D
        seismic survey was completed by Caspian Geophysical and the data
        acquired are currently being evaluated in the Baku processing
        center of Caspian Geophysical. Plans for 1998 are to shoot a
        2-D shallow water seismic in the northern part of the block and
        to determine the location of the exploration wells. |