Azerbaijan, Baku, July 22 / Trend E. Ismayilov /
Supplies of Azerbaijani gas to Turkey to the amount of 17-18 million cubic meters per day compared to 14 million cubic meters a day yesterday will not be permanent. The slight increase is caused by an explosion on the gas pipeline from Iran to Turkey, the source of the oil and gas market said.
Turkish pipeline company Botas told Trend over phone that the lack of gas, which arose because of the explosion on the gas pipeline Iran-Turkey, is fully compensated by Gazprom's increase in supplies of Russian gas. The Russian company increased gas supplies to Turkey from 14 million cubic meters per day to 22 million cubic meters July 21. Turkish Botas also applied to Gazprom to supply 32 million cubic meters of gas July 22.
A representative of the oil and gas market said that the return of gas supplies to the level of 14 million cubic meters per day will occur after the resumption of supply of Iranian gas. "Supply of gas to the volume of 14 million cubic meters per day is the standard seasonal volume, which Turkey receives in this period," the source said.
Supplies of Azerbaijani gas to Turkey are carried out under contract with the Azerbaijani offshore gas-condensate field Shah Deniz. Under the contract, Turkey should receive 6.6 billion cubic meters of gas from the first stage of Shah Deniz (total reserves estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters) annually.
The contract to develop the offshore Shah Deniz field was signed June 4, 1996. Participants to the agreement are: BP (operator) - 25.5 percent, Statoil Hydro - 25.5 percent, NICO - 10 percent, Total - 10 percent, LukAgip - 10 percent, TPAO - 9 percent, SOCAR-10 percent.
Gas from Azerbaijan to Turkey is transported by pipeline Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum. The length of the pipeline is over 700 miles. Power flow is more than 20 billion cubic meters of gas a year.