Shah Deniz partners, gas buyers to ink agreements this week
By Gulgiz Dadashova
Three Shah Deniz Consortium members -- Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR, British BP and France's Total -- are planning to sign contracts on the sale of gas from the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas-condensate field soon.
SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev said that the Shah Deniz Consortium and the buyers of Azerbaijani gas will ink relevant agreements on September 19 in Baku.
Reserves at the Shah Deniz field are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas. The contract on the development of the Shah Deniz offshore field was signed on June 4, 1996. Stakeholders are: BP (operator) and Statoil with 25.5 percent each, NICO with 10 percent, Total with 10 percent, Lukoil with 10 percent, TPAO with 9 percent and SOCAR with 10 percent.
Gas to be produced during the second stage of Shah Deniz field development will be the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor, which envisages the transportation of Caspian gas to European markets via pipelines. According to projections, gas production can be brought up to 24 billion cubic meters (bcm) a year during the second stage of development.
In late June, the Shah Deniz Consortium announced the selection of TAP as the route to transport its gas to Europe. Another pipeline which was vying for transporting Azerbaijani gas to Europe was Nabucco West.