Azerbaijan, Baku , Nov.16 / Trend , E.Ismayilov /
A final decision on a gas transportation route to Europe will be set out by late 2011, adviser to SOCAR President Murad Heydarov said at a conference 'European Perspectives on Caspian energy' in Baku today.
The conference is supported by the Centre for Strategic Studies under the chairmanship of the Azerbaijani President, the French International Relations Institute and SOCAR. Mr. Heydarov said the issue is at final decision-making stage.
Previously, the pipeline projects ITGI, TAP and Nabucco have made the final proposals to the Shah Deniz Consortium for the Azerbaijani gas supply to Europe. The possibility of Azerbaijani gas supply routed via the existing gas transportation infrastructure in the Balkans is also being considered.
While selecting the route attention is being paid to the economic feasibility of gas supply, Mr Heydarov said.
The selected route is of great importance in terms of not only the gas supply from the Shah Deniz field, but also to ensure supplies from Azerbaijan's promising developments such as Nakhchivan, Babak, deep bedding gas from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli and other fields.
In late October, Azerbaijan and Turkey signed a package of gas contracts which includes the costs of Azerbaijani gas for Turkey in the Shah Deniz-2 project, the volume of gas supplies to Turkey from the field after 2017, as well as a transit agreement for Azerbaijani gas transportation through Turkey. Reserves of the Shah Deniz field are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic metres of gas.
The contract to develop the offshore Shah Deniz field was signed in June 4, 1996. Parrtners are: BP (operator) - 25.5 per cent, Statoil Hydro - 25.5 per cent, NICO - 10 per cent, Total - 10 per cent, LukAgip - 10 percent, TPAO - nine per cent, SOCAR-10 per cent.
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, TAP and ITGI (Turkey-Greece-Italy pipeline). The gas produced within the second phase of the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz Field is considered to be the main gas source for these projects.