Azerbaijan, Baku, October 4 / Trend, E. Ismayilov/
The start time of construction on the second phase of the Shah Deniz gas condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea may be changed, a source in the oil and gas market told Trend on Friday.
According to the source, if it was earlier assumed that the construction works on the Shah Deniz-2 project should begin in July 2014, as a result of changing the time, they may now start in March.
"Accordingly, it is necessary to speed up a tender procedure and sign agreements in order to boost the works," the source stressed.
According to him, this will lead to the boost of works within the project, as well as maintaining of the current personnel by the contractors.
Plans for the project includes the construction of two new offshore platforms, connected to each other by a bridge, drilling 26 underwater wells with the help of two semi-submersible drilling rigs; construction of 500 kilometers of underwater pipelines at a depth of 550 meters, creation of additional opportunities for export in Azerbaijan and Georgia and expansion of the Sangachal terminal.
Reserves of 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.
The 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).