Azerbaijan, Baku, June 8 / Trend, A. Badalova /
The U.S. and its European partners consider cooperation with Azerbaijan as a means to maintaining balance in energy markets, the US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza told journalists on Wednesday.
"We support the Southern Corridor, as it will help to ensure the delivery of gas to European customers at market prices," Bryza said.
He stressed that the U.S. is very impressed with Azerbaijan's progress and the project consortium's work done over the last year to develop the major Shah Deniz gas condensate field.
According to Bryza, talks for the sale of gas from the field are in full swing, and the Shah Deniz consortium makes active efforts to develop a transit system to Europe.
"We hope that the talks on the Shah Deniz-2 will be completed, and that U.S. companies will be involved in this historic project," he emphasized.
Bryza called Azerbaijan a stable country. "There is social stability in Azerbaijan, which distinguishes it from the countries of the Middle East and North Africa," he said.
The Southern Corridor is a priority EU energy project to diversify energy supply routes and sources, and increase EU energy security. The Southern Corridor includes the Nabucco gas pipeline, the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), White Stream, and ITGI (Turkey-Greece-Italy pipeline).
The first Shah Deniz-2 gas is expected to be received in 2017.
The peak production is forecasted at over 9 billion cubic meters and 50,000 barrels of condensate. According to forecasts, gas production can be brought up to 24 billion cubic meters a year during the second stage of field development.
Shah Deniz reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.
The contract to develop the offshore Shah Deniz field was signed on June 4, 1996. Participants to the agreement are BP (operator) - 25.5 percent, Statoil - 25.5 percent, NICO - 10 percent, Total - 10 percent, LukAgip - 10 percent, TPAO - 9 percent and SOCAR-10 percent.