Azerbaijan, Baku, June 28 / Trend, S. Aliyev /
There are no political risks for Azerbaijani gas supplies to Europe, SOCAR head Rovnag Abdullayev told journalists today.
"No one is safe from risk," he added. "The Karabakh issue still remains unresolved. But Azerbaijan is a peaceful country. It stands for good neighborly relations. I do not think there will be risks. We do not see any political risk right now."
According to him, Azerbaijan has large gas reserves and plans to develop new "Umid" and "Absheron" fields and "Shafag Asiman" and "Babak" perspective structures. This will not only actualize the Trans Adriatic Pipeline project, but ensure a way for supplying gas to the Eastern European countries.
As for SOCAR's participation in the privatization of Greek DESFA (gas distribution network), Abdullayev said that the decision is not related to the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project and should be considered as a commercial project.
BP-Azerbaijan head Gordon Birrell told media that the transportation of Azerbaijani oil to the world market has been ensured for 15 years. There were no political risks and interventions during this period.
"The same applies to the first phase of the Shah Deniz field development," Birrell said.
On Friday, the shareholders of the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field development project announced about the selection of TAP as the transit route for its gas to European markets.
The TAP project is designed to transport gas from the Caspian via Greece and Albania across the Adriatic Sea to the south of Italy and further to Western Europe.
Gas extracted during the second phase of development of the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field is considered the pipeline's main source of gas.
TAP's initial pipeline capacity will be 10 billion cubic metres per year, but it is easily expandable to 20 billion cubic metres per year. TAP's shareholders are AXPO of Switzerland (42.5 per cent), Norway's Statoil (42.5 per cent) and E.ON Ruhrgas of Germany (15 per cent).
Construction of TAP is expected to start in 2015.