Azerbaijan's gas export potential to increase by 2023: SOCAR
By Aynur Jafarova
Azerbaijan's gas export potential will reach 40-50 billion cubic meters by 2025, head of Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR said on November 21.
Speaking at a press conference held within the Atlantic Council's fifth annual Energy & Economic Summit, Rovnag Abdullayev said that the volume of investment made in Turkish economy will reach $20 billion by 2023.
He went on to note that construction of the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) will start in 2014 and, at the first stage, the volume of gas transported through this pipeline will be 16 billion cubic meters.
"In the future, the possibility of increasing the gas supply through TANAP to 30 billion cubic meters will be considered," Abdullayev said.
The SOCAR head also said that the gas produced in Iran, Iraq, and Israel may be transported via this pipeline.
TANAP is able to meet Europe's gas needs, and discussions on TANAP partnership will be held with British BP, Norwegian Statoil, and French Total, he said.
The TANAP project, jointly developed by Azerbaijan's SOCAR, Turkish state pipeline company Botas, and energy company TPAO, will deliver Shah Deniz gas to the Turkish-Greek border from eastern Turkey. TANAP will connect to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) on the Turkish-Greek border.
According to Abdullayev, Azerbaijan's gas reserves are more than three trillion cubic meters which helps the development of the country's export potential.
Touching on the Star refinery which is being constructed in Izmir, Turkey, the SOCAR head said that his company will allocate $2 billion from its budget to the implementation of this project.
The Star refinery's processing capacity is projected at 10 million tons of crude oil, and it will be capable of refining such oil grades as Azeri Light, Kirkuk and Urals.
Speaking at the press conference, BP Azerbaijan Vice President for Shah Deniz Al Cook said that the natural gas which will be produced within the Shah Deniz Stage 2 development will be sufficient for all the countries of the Southern Gas Corridor.
According to him, the final investment decision of the Shah Deniz consortium on this project will be made public on December 24.
Some 16 billion cubic meters of gas will be produced in the Shah Deniz Stage 2 development and exported to the energy markets. This figure will be increased by one billion cubic meters per year.
The Atlantic Council's fifth annual Energy & Economic Summit kicked off in Istanbul on November 21.
The main topics on the agenda of the summit include global and regional energy security, diversification of energy routes, ansd energy and stability.
Ministers, business leaders, and industry experts participated in the summit. The keynote speakers at the opening session of the summit were Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz, and Grand Duke of Luxembourg Henri.
The two-day summit also features keynote addresses by U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and former U.S. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley among the notable participants.
The two-day event features more than 300 policymakers and CEOs representing more than 40 countries.