Details added (the first version was posted at 12:17)
Azerbaijan, Baku, July 4 / Trend, E.Ismayilov /
In May 2013, the Shah Deniz project partners will make a decision to select one of the gas pipeline routes for transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe, President of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) told journalists on Wednesday.
Today the partners are evaluating two routes - Nabucco-West and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).
He said the partners of the Shah Deniz Consortium intend to purchase most of the equity in the gas pipeline project which will be selected for the transportation of gas to Europe.
With regard to the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline project (TANAP), Abdullayev said this project will be one of the major projects in Azerbaijan and will allow ensuring transportation of Azerbaijani gas across Turkey to Europe. The minimum capacity of the gas pipeline is estimated at 16 billion cubic meters per year with possibility to increase up to 30 billion cubic meters.
According to Abdullayev, it will be possible to transport gas not only from the Shah Deniz field, but also other fields in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea via this gas pipeline.
Last week, the consortium of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas field development selected Nabucco West as the single pipeline option for the potential export of Shah Deniz Stage 2 gas to Central Europe.
In February, the Shah Deniz Consortium announced that TAP was chosen as the priority route for the export of Azerbaijani gas to Italy. A cooperation agreement has been signed between the Shah Deniz consortium and TAP.
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 on June 4, 1996. Participants to the agreement are: BP (operator) - 25.5 per cent, Statoil - 25.5 per cent, NICO - 10 per cent, Total - 10 per cent, LukAgip - 10 per cent, TPAO - nine per cent and SOCAR-10 per cent.