KBR, Inc. has signed a joint venture (JV) agreement with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) to establish a new engineering and support services company in Azerbaijan. With support from KBR and SOCAR, the new company will provide design, engineering, technical, procurement, construction supervision and project management services for projects across the upstream, midstream and downstream oil and gas sectors, primarily in the Republic of Azerbaijan. The company will also prepare technical requirements for all stages of a project, including project management, contract supervision, planning and cost control. Additionally, it will train and develop the local workforce and supervise contractors throughout all stages of a project, from startup through construction and into performance testing. The JV will be located in Baku. Bookings from the JV will be recognised as projects are awarded in the future.
KBR has worked on various projects in Azerbaijan since 1994, achieving more than 17 million man hours. At its peak, KBR employed nearly 400 Azerbaijani workers expending more than 4 million man hours in the country.
"KBR is proud to continue our successful history in Azerbaijan," said Stuart Bradie, KBR President and CEO. "This joint agreement represents KBR's ability to bring consistent and valuable training and educational programmes to the region. We look forward to mobilizing our expertise, systems and procedures to support SOCAR's success with these new projects."
"We are confident that this strong JV will help to realise our ambition to create a world class Azerbaijan-based engineering company," added Rovnag Abdullayev, President, SOCAR.
Adapted from press release by Rosalie Starling