Azernews.Az

By Gulgiz Dadashova

Germany's E.ON will purchase 40 billion cubic metres (bcm) of the Azerbaijani gas under the 25 year-contract, signed with the Shah Deniz consortium.

The company reported that annually it will purchase 1.6 bcm of the Azerbaijani gas.

Late last week, Azerbaijan agreed to sell over 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year from the second phase of its Shah Deniz development to nine companies in the European Union, which is seeking to reduce reliance on Russian supplies.

The contracts were signed for 25 years between Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR and the European utilities, including Axpo Trading AG, Bulgargaz EAD, Depa, Gas Natural Fenosa, Hera Trading Srl, Shell Energy Europe, Enel SpA, EON SE and GDF Suez SA.

Meanwhile, the French GDF SUEZ reported that the company contracted volumes of 2.6 bcm per year from the Shah Deniz -2 for a period of 25 years.

Earlier it was reported that the Italian Hera Tranding annually will get 300 million cubic metres of Azerbaijani gas under the signed contract.

Other six companies - Shell, Bulgar gas, Gas Natural Fenosa, Enel, Axpo and DEPA have not yet disclosed gas volumes to be purchased.

Gas to be produced within the Shah Deniz-2 project is the main source for the TAP, which in June was selected as a route for transportation of Azerbaijani gas to European markets.

The initial capacity of TAP will amount to 10 billion cubic metres per annum with the possibility of expanding to 20 billion cubic metres per annum.

Currently TAP's shareholders include BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Statoil (20 percent), Fluxys (16 percent), Total (10 percent), E.ON (9 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).

The construction of TAP is planned to start in 2015.