ВР Resumes Gas Export through South-Caucasus Pipe via Georgia

Azerbaijan, Baku, 14 August / Trend corr. S.Aliyev/ On 14 August, ВР Azerbaijan resumed export through the South-Caucasus gas pipe (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum), Spokesperson for the company Tamam Bayatli said on 14 August.

"Operations through gas pipe have been resumed today," she said.

ВР, technical operator for the development of the Shah Deniz gas and condensate field, located in Azerbaijan's sector of the Caspian Sea, and the South Caucasus gas pipe, stopped gas export from Azerbaijan on 12 August for security purposes due to the Georgia-South Ossetia conflict.

Anyway, Georgia and Turkey were receiving the gas which had been pumped into the pipe before suspension. In spite of suspended export, gas production in Shah Deniz continued. The gas was handed over to Azerbaijan.

About 7.7bln cu m of gas will be produced from Shah Deniz within 2008, with about 2.9bln to be handed over to Azerbaijan and the remaining volume to Georgia and Turkey.

Some 8.6bln cu m of gas per year and 45,000 barrels of condensate per day is expected to be produced from Shah Deniz within Stage I. BP plans to produce 7.68bln cu m of gas and 16.3mln barrels of condensate per day from the field in 2008.

Average 21mln cu m of gas per day is produced from Shah Deniz at the moment, with about 10-11mln cu m of gas per day supplied to Turkey and the remaining volume to Azerbaijan, Georgia and to the pumping stations of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipe as fuel.

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 Shah Deniz commenced in December 2006. The gas is transported to Georgia and Turkey via South Caucasus gas pipeline. Azerbaijan also purchased the gas.

Some 8.6bln cu m of gas is envisaged to be produced within Stage I per year. The gas will be supplied to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. The production will be increased up to 20bln cu m within Stage II which will commence to be realized after 2012.

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