Azernews.Az

By Gulgiz Dadashova

Three Shah Deniz Consortium -- Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR, British BP and France's Total -- is planning to spend $2.3bn in 2013 within Shah Deniz Stage 2 in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.

BP reported that the Shah Deniz consortium is planning to make the final investment decision on Shah Deniz stage 2 later in 2013. The target date for the first gas exports to Turkey is 2018 and to Europe in 2019.

Shah Deniz Stage 2, or Full Field Development (FFD) is a giant project that will add a further 16 billion cubic meters per year (bcma) of gas production to the approximately 9 bcma produced by Shah Deniz Stage 1.

BP's report also said that the volume of gas production from Azerbaijan's giant Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea amounted to approximately 7.73 billion cubic meters of gas and nearly 16.1 million barrels of condensate in 2012.

According to the report, internal and external exports from the Shah Deniz field amounted to around 37.6 billion cubic meters of gas, as well as 80 million barrels of condensate from the beginning of production at the end of 2006 to the end of 2012.

Currently, the potential daily volume of production at Shah Deniz is 27.3 million cubic meters of gas (depending on demand) and 55,000 barrels of condensate.

The Shah Deniz field, which is one of the world's largest gas-condensate fields, was discovered in 1999. Its reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas. Overall, the field has proved to be a secure and reliable supplier of gas to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey as well as Europe.