Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18
By Dalga Khatinoglu - Trend:
British Petroleum Company is willing to get involved in Iran’s upstream sector and see Iranian gas in EU through Southern Gas Corridor, Jonathan Evans, Vice President for Exploration Technical Functions at BP Exploration, told Trend.
“We have Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) project from Azerbaijan to Europe and we hope one day Iranian gas may float to that project”, Evans, who is also a VP Iran Access BP, said on the sidelines of an energy conference in Iran Oct.17.
The 3500-km SGC is aimed to deliver 31 billion cubic metres per year (bcm/y) of gas from Caspian Sea and other sources to the EU. First gas deliveries in restricted amount is targeted for late 2018, with supplies to Georgia and Turkey from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz Stage 2 and the level would gradually increase to 16 bcm/d by 2021, of which 6 bcm/y would be purchased by Turkey and the remained volume would be delivered to the EU.
In the second stage, SGC is projected to deliver about 25 bcm/d by 2024 and finally 31 bcm/ in early 2030s.
SGC includes South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion (SCPX), the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) as well as Trans Adriatic pipeline (TAP).
BP has 25.5 percent share in Shah Deniz (including SCPX), 12 percent in TANAP as well as 20 percent in TAP.
For now, Iran has a little idle capacity (about 2 bcm/d) to deliver further gas to Turkey rather than the current 9 bcm/d, but the country plans to develop a $6-billion pipeline with 1850 km length and 30 bcm/y transit capacity, called Igat 9, to bring it South Pars gas to Turkey borders.
Iran plans to export 60-80 bcm/y of gas by 2021. For now, Iran has about 46 bcm/y deals with Turkey, Oman, Pakistan and Iraq. Currently, Iran’s only clientTurkey takes about 9 bcm/y of gas from the Islamic Republic.
The country also wants to complete a LNG plant with capacity 10.4 million metric tons per year (equals to 14 bcm/y) in coming years. “Iran LNG” project had been completed by 52 percent during the pre-sanctions era, but Iran has been talking with foreign companies to resume the project after lifting sanctions in January 2016.
Currently, Iran produces about 270 bcm/y of raw gas, including flaring (11 bcm/y) and re-injection (30 bcm/yr). The country plans to increase this volume to 365 bcm/y by March 2018 and 460 bcm/y by 2021.