Baku, Azerbaijan, June 29
By Maksim Tsurkov – Trend:
Some $12 billion have been allocated for the second stage of development of Azerbaijan's largest Shah Deniz gas field out of $24 billion - the total cost of the project, Head of the Investment Department of the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR Vagif Aliyev said at the meeting with representatives of NGOs in Baku.
“As of May 1, nine of 26 projected new wells were drilled on the field,” Aliyev said. “In April, the work on extraction of the first gas within the second stage of the Shah Deniz field’s development was carried out ahead of schedule. In general, the project was completed by 74.2 percent.”
The contract for development of the Shah Deniz offshore field was signed June 4, 1996. The field's reserve is estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas. A final investment decision was made on the Shah Deniz 2 field in Baku in 2013, envisaging producing additional 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year at the field. Azerbaijan will export six billion cubic meters a year of this gas to Turkey and 10 billion cubic meters to Europe.
Within the framework of the project it is planned that the first gas will reach Turkey in 2018, and Europe - in 2020, Aliyev said.
“The project includes construction of two new platforms, drilling of 26 new wells, supply of subsea equipment, expansion of the Sangachal terminal and laying over 500 kilometers of underwater pipes,” he noted. “The project involves 162 supplier of equipment from 23 countries. Contracts for engineering, construction work and procurement worth more than $11 billion were signed within the project.”
“In total, taking into account inflation, some $12 billion has already been spent out of the estimated capital expenditures for the project in the amount of nearly $24 billion,” Aliyev added.
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