BP: Southern Gas Corridor costs set to come in under $40 billion
By Trend
The cost of building the Southern Gas Corridor -- designed to bring gas to Europe from Azerbaijan -- is set to come in at under $40 billion after savings were made across the value chain, S&P Global Platts quoted a senior BP official as saying.
Joseph Murphy, BP's vice president for the Southern Gas Corridor, said in an interview in London that BP's own operated costs were set to be 20 percent under budget.
"The savings have come first -- and most importantly -- from remaining on schedule," Murphy said.
“Often these kinds of mega-projects fall behind schedule. But the way the projects have maintained the schedule has meant that your traditional overspend, or utilization of contingency, has not occurred," he said.
Murphy said there was still work to do to complete the project, with TAP and parts of TANAP still to be finished.
Murphy said other factors had helped push down the expected final cost of the Southern Gas Corridor including the industry downturn that hit in 2014.
"We started this project just as oil prices dropped," he said, adding though that work began in January 2014 "so we weren't getting the immediate cost benefit from a lower supply chain."