Azernews.Az

Oil giant BP that acts as operator on the development of the biggest Azerbaijani offshore field Shahdaniz is delaying Phase 2 of the project, Minister of Energy and Industry Natig Aliyev says.
He said the delay has raised concerns. "In my opinion, BP is delaying operations under the project too much."
The minister said the second stage of Shahdaniz development is scheduled for 2012, but the timeframe will not be met if the company continues the operations at the same pace. This will postpone the implementation of Phase 2 until 2013, Aliyev said.
Elaborating on the reasons for the delay, the minister said the company might explain it by marketing considerations in the gas sales market, however, "there should be no concerns over the market".
"A huge market is available for the sales of Shahdaniz gas," Aliyev said.
Aliyev said that given Europe's current and projected demand for gas, the field's importance is rapidly increasing. BP should therefore speed up work on launching Phase 2 of the project, he added.
The Shahdaniz field holds estimated reserves of 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas. BP predicts production at 12-16bn cu. m. during Phase 2, but Azerbaijani officials say the figure could be increased to 30bn cu. m.
The parties to the Shahdaniz Production Sharing Agreement are: BP (25.5%), Statoil (25.5%), Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR (10%), Russian giant LUKoil (10%), NICO (10%), Total (10%), and TPAO (9%).