Azerbaijan, Baku, 16 April / Trend corr E. Ismayilov/ "The head of the Baku Office of the Norwegian StatoilHydro company positively estimated the on-going talks with Turkey on changing of the cost of the Azerbaijani gas produced in the Shah Deniz field," the head of the StatoilHydro's Baku Office Christian Hausken said. StatoilHydro operates the Azerbaijan Gas Supply Company.
"I have positive mood on the discussion with Turkey," Hausken said to Trend of 16 April. He did not divulge the details of the negotiations.
Hausken positively estimated the course of the negotiations on sale of the Azerbaijani gas from Shah Deniz to European countries.
"We are very optimistic. We expect the negotiations to have been completed by 2013," he said.
According to StatoilHydro, the second stage of Shah Deniz operation may be commenced at the end of 2013.
Within the framework of Stage-2 it is planned to export 12bln cu m of gas annually from Shah Deniz. The gas will be exported via the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) both during Stage-1 and Stage-2 of the project.
Presently, four advanced wells produce 21-22mln cu m of gas per day in Shah Deniz. Daily Turkey receives some 13-14mln cu m of the Shah Deniz gas, Azerbaijan receives over 7mln cu m and Georgia - 1mln cu m. Drilling of the 5th well will be completed by the middle of this year.
The contract on development of off-shore Shah Deniz field was signed on 4 June 1996. The sides to the contract are ВР (operator - 25.5%), Statoil (25.5%), SOCAR (10%), LukAgip (10%), NICO (10%), Total (10%), and TPAO (9%).
Gas production in the field was launched in December 2006. Presently, gas is transported to Georgia and Turkey via the South-Caucasus gas pipeline. Azerbaijan also purchases the gas.
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