Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.11
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
The cause of French Total's withdrawal from the Shah Deniz gas condensate field development project in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea was a mismatch between the development concept of the field and the interests of the company, said The National Business with reference to the head of Total Exploration and Development Arnaud Breuillac.
He said this year's decision to pull out of the huge but difficult Shah Deniz gas project off Azerbaijan, which is operated by BP, reflected this discipline.
"We tried as a partner in the venture to push for a design that would be more efficient, but the outcome of the process was not satisfactory for us as a 10 percent equity owner," said Mr Breuillac. "We would have kept it, but we found a good client and said 'there you go'."
In May, 2014 Total sold its 10 percent share in the project to TPAO and after the completion of the transaction, the share of the latter in the project will be equal to 19 percent.
Currently, the partners for the development of the Shah Deniz field are: British BP (28.8 percent), Norwegian Statoil (15.5 percent), Iran's NICO (10 percent), French Total (10 percent), Russia's Lukoil (10 percent) and Turkish TPAO (9 percent), SOCAR (16.7 percent).
The contract for development of the Shah Deniz offshore field, which has proven reserve of 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas, was signed on June 4, 1996.
Gas as part of the Stage 1 of development of the Shah Deniz field is exported to Turkey and Georgia via South Caucasus gas pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum).
Around 6 billion cubic meters of the total volume of gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of the Shah Deniz field will be delivered to Turkey and 10 billion cubic meters to Europe per year.
The gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of the field's development will be exported to Turkey and to the European markets by means of expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and construction of the Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).
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