Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 15 / Trend , E.Ismayilov/
In the near future, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) plans to sign a commercial agreement with Turkey on the issue of the price for the Azerbaijani gas in the seabed of the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field, a senior official of SOCAR said on Sept. 15.
"In the near future we can expect the signing of a commercial agreement on gas price, and we are taking the relevant steps in this direction and we want to quickly solve it," said the source.
The source said the latest round of the negotiations between SOCAR and Turkey was held on Sept. 11. Thus, representatives of SOCAR met with the Turkish delegation, headed by the Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Taner Yildiz. "Each of our meetings with the Turkish side has made clear the position of both sides on this issue," added the representative of the State Oil Company.
The head of SOCAR, Rovnag Abdullayev said earlier that most of the issues and technology indicators about the price of the Azerbaijani gas for Turkey under the first stage of Shah Deniz field, as well as the volume destined for Turkey in the second phase of this project have been resolved. The Azerbaijani and Turkish sides are coming close to a common position regarding the issue of gas prices. "The main problem is the formula for determining prices, Turkey in this regard has its own position, we have ours, but we are slowly approaching each other," added Abdullayev.
Azerbaijan supplies gas to Turkey at a price of $120 per 1,000 cubic meters. Turkey sells gas at $380 per 1,000 cubic meters in domestic market.
Under the contract with Turkey, the cost of gas from Shah Deniz could be reviewed one year after the start of supply, i.e. the new price would apply from April 15, 2008.
Under the contract, Turkey is to receive 6.6 billion cubic meters of gas from the field "Shah Deniz" in the first stage of development of the project.
The contract on development of off-shore Shah Deniz field was signed on 4 June 1996. Shah Deniz participating interests are: ВР (operator - 25.5 percent), StatoilHydro (25.5 percent), SOCAR (10 percent), LukAgip (10 percent), NICO (10 percent), Total (10 percent), and TPAO (9 percent). Field's reserve was estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic metre of gas.
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