Azernews.Az

BAKU – Talks on signing an agreement on the exports of Azerbaijani natural gas through Turkey to Europe will resume in late July, head of Azerbaijan’s state energy firm Socar has said.

Rovnag Abdullayev told the press Friday that the talks were suspended due to the June 12 parliamentary elections in Turkey and will resume once a new government in the country has been formed.

"Agreement has been reached with the Turkish side that meetings will begin by the end of this month and work will be continued," Abdullayev said.

Some reports say that the gas transit deal could be signed during Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Azerbaijan in late July. The Socar president did not confirm the reports but said work on the agreement is to be finalized shortly.

At the same time, Socar is discussing with its partners in the project on developing Shahdaniz, Azerbaijan’s biggest gas-condensate field in the Caspian Sea, an expansion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline’s section stretching from the Azerbaijani capital Baku to Georgia or construction of a new gas line that would be parallel to the BTE conduit.

A transit deal with Turkey will allow resource-rich Azerbaijan to exports its gas -- particularly gas from the Shahdaniz field -- to European markets. Baku is currently in talks with potential buyers and transit states. But the signing of agreements with European importers and sanctioning of the second stage of Shahdaniz development is expected only after Azerbaijan signs a transit deal with neighboring Turkey.

Azerbaijani gas will be exported to Europe as part of the Southern Gas Corridor, which includes a slew of ambitious projects supported by the European Union, including the Nabucco gas pipeline.

First gas during the second stage of the Shahdaniz project is to be produced in 2017. According to projections, gas production can be brought up to 25 billion cubic meters a year during Phase 2.

The Shahdaniz field holds estimated reserves of 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.