Azerbaijan, Baku, 22 May / Trend E. Ismailov /
In September 2013, preliminary data with regards to the selection of contractors for construction work within the second stage of development of the Shah Deniz offshore gas condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea will be announced, a source in the oil and gas market told Trend.
The source said a formal decision on the selection of contractors will be made in January 2014.
"This means construction work will begin in mid-2014," he said.
According to the source, following adoption of the final decision it will take some time to train and mobilise all necessary resources and efforts to begin work. That is why the work will be started within six months after the announcement of the tender results.
Plans for the project include construction of two new offshore platforms connected to each other by a bridge, the drilling of 26 subsea wells via two semi-submersible drilling rigs, construction of subsea pipelines to a depth of 550 m and 500 km and additional export opportunities in Azerbaijan and Georgia as well as expansion of the Sangachal terminal.
Reserves of the Shah Deniz field are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.
The contract to develop the Shah Deniz offshore field was signed on June 1996. Shareholders are: BP (operator) - 25.5 per cent, Statoil - 25.5 per cent, NICO - 10 per cent, Total - 10 per cent, Lukoil - 10 per cent, TPAO - nine per cent and SOCAR - 10 per cent.
Gas produced in the second stage of the field's development will be exported to Turkey (six billion cubic meters) and Europe (10 billion cubic meters).