Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan.26
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
The decline in world oil prices didn't affect the implementation of works contracts within the second stage of the development of Shah Deniz gas condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, a source on the oil and gas market of Azerbaijan told Trend Jan.23.
"All the work in progress, and there are no problems with the financing," said the source. "As it was planned, the commissioning of the platform and the start of gas production within the framework of the Shah Deniz-2 project will occur in 2018."
The annual gas production volume will increase from 9 billion cubic meters (within the first phase) by an additional 16 billion cubic meters in the second phase within the framework of the Shah Deniz project. Two offshore platforms will be installed and more than 20 subsea wells will be drilled for the extraction of additional volumes of gas within the framework of Shah Deniz-2 project.
The gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of the field's development will be exported to Turkey and to the European markets by means of expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and construction of the Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).
Speaking about the successful development of the Shah Deniz project, the source also touched upon the prospects of implementation of the third stage of field development.
This issue is being studied, and the work within the third stage will cover the deeper part of the filed, according to the source.
"The project of Shah Deniz development progresses successfully, as evidenced by the plans for the implementation of the third stage of field development," said the source. "But the timing hasn't been determined yet."
A senior official of SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) previously said that the partners of the Shah Deniz development project agreed upon the plans for the conduct of exploration work within the third stage of field development.
The operator (British BP) presented its data to the project partners, in accordance with which additional gas and condensate reserves can be detected on the Shah Deniz field. In this case, the matter rests in an additional 0.5 trillion cubic meters of gas and the corresponding volumes of condensate. Questions of seismic surveys and exploration drilling conduct have already been agreed upon.
Implementation of the project is planned for the period after 2025, which will provide support for peak production around 25 billion cubic meters of gas per year. If reserves are confirmed, recoverable reserves will reach 1.7 trillion cubic meters.
Shah Deniz reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas. The contract to develop the offshore Shah Deniz field was signed on June 4, 1996.
Participants at the development of the Shah Deniz field are SOCAR (the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) 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 (9 percent). Earlier, Total sold its share to Turkish TPAO and after completion of the transaction, the share of the latter will be 19 percent in the project.
Moreover, Norway's Statoil has sold its 15.5-percent share in the Shah Deniz project to the Malaysian oil and gas company Petronas. The transactions on the sale and purchase of the shares haven't been completed yet.
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