Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.12
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) is preparing to study investment opportunities in Albania, SOCAR's high-ranking representative told Trend, speaking about the company's investment plans with respect to Albania.
Azerbaijan and Albania signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in December 2014 on cooperation in the development of a master plan for gas supply to Albania, which has no gas market of its own.
With regards to Albania's overall market, the source said it requires studying.
"All this [in particular, the signing of the MoU as well] is the preparation for studying the investment opportunities," the company's representative said.
SOCAR expressed interest in 2014 to participate in the process of supplying gas to Albania. The company already has experience in organizing supply and management of gas distribution networks in Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Albania is one of the European countries that will get Azerbaijani gas within the Southern Gas Corridor.
The Southern Gas Corridor will allow Europe to diversify its hydrocarbon supply sources and strengthen energy security and also will allow Azerbaijan to obtain a new market in Europe. A final investment decision was made on December 17, 2013 on the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz offshore gas and condensate field's development. The gas produced at this field will first go to the European market (10 billion cubic meters). Around six billion cubic meters will be annually supplied to Turkey.
The shareholders after purchasing part of Statoil's share in the project by SOCAR and BP are as follows: BP, operator (28.8 percent), Statoil (15.5 percent), NICO (10 percent), Total (10 percent), Lukoil (10 percent) and TPAO (9 percent) and SOCAR - 16.7 percent. Earlier, Total sold its share in the project to the Turkish company TPAO, and after completion of the deal the latter's share in the project will be 19 percent.
Norwegian Statoil sold a 15.5-percent share in the project to the Malaysian company Petronas. The deal for purchase and sale of shares is not yet complete.
As part of the second stage of the field's development, gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus gas pipeline and the construction of Trans-Anatolian (TANAP) and Trans-Adriatic (TAP) gas pipelines.
Edited by SI
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