Azerbaijani gas to reach Europe in 2019: SOCAR official
Azerbaijani gas will be supplied from the Shah Deniz offshore gas condensate field to Europe in 2019, SOCAR Vice-President Elshad Nasirov said at a meeting of the Euronest PA Energy Committee in Baku on Tuesday.
He said that the final decision will be made to choose the route of transporting Azerbaijani gas to Europe in June.
"The decision on supplying Azerbaijani gas to the Austrian Baumgarten or Italian Pula, that is choosing Nabucco West or Trans Adriatic Pipeline, will be made in June," Nasirov said.
He said that the final investment decision on the Shah Deniz project will be made by October this year. The production of the necessary volumes of gas and its supply to the pipeline will begin in 2018 and deliveries to Europe in 2019.
Today, Azerbaijan is participating in both projects, Nabucco West and TAP, and must pay $40-45 million as a contribution.
Nasirov said that today Azerbaijani taxpayers may ask: "Why are funds being invested in both projects if only one is chosen?"
"We must not make a mistake in today's conditions when the competition has greatly increased," he said. "It is better to take the risk of $40-45 million now to understand which project is worse than to lose more in the future."
The SOCAR representative said a route will be exclusively chosen proceeding from commercial principles.
Currently, a consortium developing the Shah Deniz field, is considering two options of transporting gas to Europe - Nabucco West and TAP projects. Azerbaijan plans to export 10 billion cubic meters of gas a year to Europe within the second stage of the Shah Deniz development.