State Oil Fund of the Republic of Azerbaijan received on July 20, 2007 the bonus payment amounted 45 mln. dollars in accordance with the Agreement signed between Azerbaijan Government and foreign extractive sector companies on the exploration, development and production sharing for the Shah Deniz prospective area in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea.

The bonus on the aforesaid agreement was envisaged to be paid in accordance with 2006 budget of the Fund. However, due to the delay of gas production from Shah Deniz the bonus payment took place recently.

The participants of Shah Deniz project are BP Exploration (Azerbaijan) Ltd, Statoil Azerbaijan A.S, AzShah Deniz Ltd, TOTAL E&P Ltd, LUKOIL OVERSEAS Shah Deniz Ltd, NICO and TPAO companies.