Azerbaijan, Baku, 28 April / Trend corr S. Aliyev/ Gas production in the gas and condensate Shah Deniz field located in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea has dropped to 18mln cu m of gas per day from 22mln cu m per day, the Government reported on 28 April. The reason for the drop was due to a drop in requirements of large contracted volumes for sale to purchasers.
Presently, four wells in the Shah Deniz field produce gas which is supplied to Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The fifth well is currently being drilled and is expected to be completed in mid-2008.
The contract to develop off-shore Shah Deniz field was signed on 4 June 1996. The parties involved in the contract are ВР (operator - 25.5%), Statoil (25.5%), SOCAR (10%), LukAgip (10%), NICO (10%), Total (10%), and TPAO (9%).
Some 8.8bln cu m of gas is envisaged to be produced within Stage I per year. The gas will be supplied to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. Production will be increased up to 20bln cu m within Stage II which will be realized after 2012. At this Stage, the gas is expected to be exported to Europe.
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