Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline capacity to increase
Capacity of the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (BTE) gas pipeline, which transports gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea, will be increased to 65 billion cubic meters per year, Azerbaijani Deputy Energy Minister Natig Abbasov said at the international conference "Construction of Bridges" in Baku on Thursday.
"An agreement has been reached with BP to increase capacity of the gas pipeline first to 35 billion cubic meters per year, and later to 65 billion cubic meters," Abbasov said.
He said it will increase Azerbaijan's role in ensuring the energy security of Europe.
In the first half-year, the South Caucasus Pipeline, a section of the BTE pipeline crossing Azerbaijan and Georgia, transported 2.2 billion cubic meters of gas compared to 2.4 billion cubic meters of gas in January-June 2011.
The gas transported via the BTE pipeline is supplied to Georgia and Turkey.