Kazakhstan, Astana, Sept. 24 / Trend K. Konyrova, E.Ismayilov /
SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) is not considering the transportation of Azerbaijani gas to China through Kazakhstan, head of SOCAR, Rovnag Abdullayev, said on Sept.24.
SOCAR is not considering the Azerbaijani gas delivery. "This is a general trend to diversify the Azerbaijani gas supplies," Abdullayev said.
According to Abdullaev, the supply in this direction may be carried out under the Caspian Sea and Azerbaijan has experience in this field. The country has several thousand kilometers long submarine pipelines on its own shelf (located between the production platforms and between platforms and land).
Last week, during the Baku international gas conference, head of SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan), Rovnag Abdullayev, said that Kabildin proposed SOCAR to supply gas to China through Kazakhstan.
Kabildin confirmed they had made proposal to Azerbaijan. "Azerbaijan has shown interest in the project [...]. If today the issue of the Caspian resources' supply from east to west is under consideration, then why not to consider the supply in the opposite direction - from east to west," Kabildin said. He was responding to the question of the Trend correspondent.
Azerbaijan's participation in the Kazakhstan-China targets to diversify the Azerbaijani gas supplies to China. If the technical implementation of the Azerbaijani gas supply to the West is under consideration, then why not to consider the reverse direction. This project involves the construction of underwater pipelines, but the construction of the underwater pipelines is out of question until the status of the Caspian Sea is resolved. This project will be possible, if the Caspian littoral countries agree on the status, Kabildin said. Kabildin regards this project as a project of the future.
The first stage of the Kazakhstan-China gas pipeline will be launched on Dec.16, 2009. The capacity of this pipeline will be 40 billion cubic meters.
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