Details added (the first version was posted at 12:59)
Azerbaijan, Baku, July 10 / Trend E. Ismayilov /
SOCAR, BP and Total will get a 50 per cent stake broken down to 20, 20 and 10 per cent respectively, in the Trans Adriatic Pipeline gas pipeline project (TAP), SOCAR head Rovnag Abdullayev told journalists today.
According to him, the work is currently underway within the legalisation.
Previously, the Trans Adriatic Pipeline has been chosen to deliver 10 billion cubic meters of gas from the Azerbaijani gas condensate field Shah Deniz to Europe.
Abdullayev said that the partners for the Shah Deniz development will coordinate and sign all agreements and contracts for the export of Azerbaijani gas to Europe by late 2013 which will enable them to take a final financial decision on the second stage of the Shah Deniz field development project by the end of this year. According to him, the confirming gas prices have been already received from buyers.
Work over the contracts is underway.
The SOCAR head said the work is underway as part of the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) implementation which is a part of the route of Azerbaijani gas delivery to Europe.
The TAP project is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to the south of Italy and further to Western Europe.
TAP's initial pipeline capacity will be 10 billion cubic metres per year, but 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).
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, Lukoil - 10 per cent, TPAO - nine per cent and SOCAR - 10 per cent.
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 the Shah-Deniz-2. Peak production output at the field where 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.