Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct.13 / Trend, E. Ismayilov /
Azerbaijan attaches great importance to the project "Southern Gas Corridor" in terms of gas supplies for branch export routes, head of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) Rovnag Abdullayev said on Wednesday at a meeting with Austrian Federal Economy, Family and Youth Minister Reinhold Mitterlehner.
"At present, preparation for the second phase of development of the Shah Deniz gas condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea is close to completion," Abdullayev said.
The Austrian guest appreciated the importance of the global and regional significance of oil and gas projects implemented in Azerbaijan.
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.
At present, 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 Southern 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).
The Austrian company OMV is one of the shareholders of the Nabucco Consortium, which is one of the pipeline projects of the Southern Gas Corridor.