Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 5 /Trend, E.Ismayilov/
The experts of the consortium operating the Shah Deniz gas field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea started to consider the proposals submitted by three pipeline projects, focused on the delivery of Azerbaijani gas to Europe, the head of SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) Rovnag Abdullayev told reporters.
Pipeline projects Nabucco, ITGI and TAP have submitted their proposals to the consortium on Oct. 1. "Experts can complete the work and provide a conclusion on these three projects for 15-20 days," said Abdullayev.
The Azerbaijani side is going to deliver 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year to Europe under the Shah Deniz-2 project through the chosen pipeline.
The Shah Deniz-2 consortium will review proposals submitted in accordance with previously announced criteria, including commercial attractiveness, ability for project realization from the technical and financial point of view, engineering and design work, management, coordination and transparency, the possibility of a phased scale-up and other criteria.
Two offshore platforms will be installed and 26 subsea wells will be drilled on the Shah Deniz field to produce an additional 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year under the second phase.
Peak production at the field is projected at 9 billion cubic meters at the first phase.
It is expected to lay a network of underwater pipelines with a length of 500 kilometers and at a depth of up to 550 meters under the second phase. It is planned to establish additional export opportunities in Azerbaijan and Georgia to deliver gas volumes under the second.
Reserves of the Shah Deniz field are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.
The contract to develop the offshore Shah Deniz field was signed June 4, 1996. Participants in 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.
Presently gas is transported to Georgia and Turkey via the South Caucasus gas pipeline.
Europe is interested in cooperating with Azerbaijan in the energy sector, in particular within the Southern Gas Corridor framework.
The South Corridor is a priority EU energy project diversifying energy supply routes and sources and increasing EU energy security. The Southern Corridor includes the Nabucco gas pipeline, Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), White Stream, and ITGI (Turkey-Greece-Italy pipeline).