Baku, Azerbaijan, April 1
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
Full-scale work to expand the Sangachal terminal as part of the second stage of developing the Shah Deniz gas condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea will begin next month, a source at the country's oil and gas market told Trend on April 1.
Earlier, BP which is the Shah Deniz project operator, announced the signing of a contract worth $998 million with the Tekfen-Azfen consortium.
The contracts were signed in Baku on December 17 after the final investment decision on Shah Deniz 2 was made.
Currently, the Tekfen-Azfen consortium is involved in the preparatory work on the terminal. It is also preparing a site for the construction of workshops for the metal structure production, the source said.
"Full-scale operations are underway as part of the terminal expansion," a source said. "The preparatory work is underway at the terminal and creating metal structure production workshops. This will allow the launch of operations in May 2014."
In particular, it is planned to construct gas and condensate processing facilities at the Sangachal terminal and a pipeline running overland from the underwater pipeline to the terminal facilities, for transit of gas, condensate and monoethyleneglycol, as well as to reconstruct the existing terminal at Sangachal. The work is planned to be completed in 2018.
Gas as part of the second stage of the field development, will be exported to Turkey and the European markets by expanding the South Caucasus gas pipeline and the construction of the Trans-Anatolian (TANAP) and Trans-Adriatic (TAP) gas pipelines.
The volume of annual gas production will increase from nine billion cubic meters as part of the first phase to 16 billion cubic meters in the second phase as part of the Shah Deniz project implementation.
Shah Deniz reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.
Participants developing Shah Deniz field are SOCAR with a share of 16.7 percent, BP (28.8 percent), Norway's Statoil (15.5 percent), Iran's NICO (10 percent) , French Total (10 percent), Russia's Lukoil (10 percent) and Turkish TPAO (nine percent).
The cost of the second stage of the Shah Deniz development is estimated at $28 billion.
Translated by N.H.
Edited by S.M.