Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 6
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
All income from companies participating in the Shah Deniz gas condensate field project in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea have been directed to refinance for the second stage of field development, a representative of SOCAR told Trend on Nov. 5.
He said the directive would not affect the revenues of the State Oil Fund, which receives funds from the sale of PSA contracts, according to the laws of Azerbaijan.
"For example, the participation of Iranian companies in the Shah Deniz project is not subject to international sanctions, but the issue of their reception of funds in accordance with their shares is not on the agenda, because today all funds received from the first stage of the project have been automatically allocated to finance the second stage," stated the company representative.
As part of the implementation of the Shah Deniz project, the annual gas production volume will increase from 9 billion cubic meters (within the first phase) by additional 16 billion cubic meters in the second phase.
The contract for development of the Shah Deniz offshore field was signed on June 4, 1996. The field's reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.
The shareholders in the contract are: BP, operator (28.8 percent), AzSD (10 percent), SGC Upstream (6.7 percent), Statoil (15.5 percent), Lukoil (10 percent), NICO (10 percent) and TPAO (19 percent).
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