Azerbaijan, Baku, 29 May / Trend A.Akhundov /
The Shah Deniz Consortium will offer reasonable prices for gas from the second stage of development of the condensate field's development in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, Vice-President of SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) for Marketing and Investment Elshad Nasirov said during a speech at the session entitled 'Energy Security from the Caspian Sea to Europe: the Changing World Energy Security Dynamics: New prospects for the Southern Energy Corridor' within the forum of the 'Azerbaijan-USA: Vision for the Future' event in Baku.
"Alternative gas is never cheaper than the primary source. For example, when in 2009, Russia halted gas supplies to the Ukraine and Bulgaria, they were saved by liquefied gas from Greece which incidentally was worth twice the price. However, this does not mean that the consortium for the development of the second phase of the Shah Deniz gas field will also set high prices. We do not aim at stifling the Europeans with high prices," Nasirov said.
According to him, the consortium will take a decision on gas prices within three to four weeks.
According to the schedule of work, drilling of 26 wells provided for in the framework of the Shah Deniz-2 project will be completed by 2026. Drilling of eight wells at the field will be completed by 2018, when it is expected to receive the first gas.
Two offshore platforms will be installed and more than 20 subsea wells drilled to produce an additional 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year under Shah-Deniz-2. Peak production at the field in the first stage of development is projected at nine billion cubic meters. It is predicted that gas production can be brought up to 24 billion cubic meters a year during the second stage of the field's development.
The Shah Deniz field's reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.
The contract to develop the Shah Deniz offshore field was signed in June 1996. Participants to the agreement are: BP (operator) with 25.5 per cent, Statoil with 25.5 per cent, NICO with 10 per cent, Total with 10 per cent, Lukoil with 10 per cent, TPAO with nine per cent and SOCAR with 10 per cent.