Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan.26 / Trend /
BP is confident that the project on Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field development will remain exempted from U.S. and European Union sanctions on Iran, Bloomberg reports with the reference to marketing manager for BP on Shah Deniz Steve Garlick.
"We are confident at the moment that we will not be captured by any change or escalation in the sanctions process," Garlick said at the Energy Exchange's European Gas Conference 2012 in Vienna.
The contract to develop the offshore Shah Deniz field was signed June 4, 1996. Participants to the agreement are: BP (operator) - 25.5 percent, Statoil - 25.5 percent, NICO - 10 percent, Total - 10 percent, LukAgip - 10 percent, TPAO - 9 percent, SOCAR-10 percent.
The field's reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters during the first stage. Additional 16 billion cubic meters is planned to be produced within the second phase of the field development.
Gas, which will be produced during the second phase of Shah Deniz field development, is considered as the main source for the projects within the Southern gas Corridor. Within the Shah Deniz-2 project Azerbaijan plans to export 10 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe.
The European Union banned imports of oil from Iran on Monday and agreed to freeze the assets of Iran's central bank, joining the United States in a new round of measures. The latest sanctions by the European Union will be fully enforced by July 1.
Officials from the British Foreign Office, the EU and BP say they asked Capitol Hill lawmakers in December to ensure that new sanctions don't block the project on the second phase of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field development.
"Obviously the situation is being monitored and we are actively involved with various political bodies and lobbyists and attempting to understand exactly what does this legislation mean for Shah Deniz," Garlick said.
"There is at the moment an exemption, whether that exemption actually holds remains to be seen," he said.
Edited by: A.Badalova