Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 29
By Maksim Tsurkov – Trend:
BP plans to send gas from Azerbaijan’s largest gas field Shah Deniz into the expanded system of the South Caucasus Pipeline in the test mode in late 2017, Gordon Birrell, BP’s former regional president for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, told reporters in Baku Mar. 29.
The Khankendi vessel for underwater work, which is now being tested, will be sent to Shah Deniz in the end of 2Q 2017 to operate there, according to him.
Birrell said work on the Shah Deniz 2 project is completed by more than 90 percent.
The gas will be sent in the test mode from the Shah Deniz field into the South Caucasus Pipeline to examine the system, Birrell said.
He added that this will be done with an aim of delivering the gas to Turkey via the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) in the second half of 2018 and to Europe via the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) in 2020.
Twelve wells have already been drilled as part of the Shah Deniz Stage 2, which is sufficient to start gas production and export, according to him. Three of the 12 wells are ready for production.
Birrell noted that work on expansion of the South Caucasus Pipeline in Azerbaijan and Georgia is completed by more than 93 percent.
Reserves of the Shah Deniz field are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas. A contract for development of the field was signed on June 4, 1996.
Shah Deniz Stage 2 will add a further 16 billion cubic meters per year of gas production to the approximately 9 billion cubic meters per year produced by Shah Deniz Stage 1.
The first volume of gas within the project is planned to be received in 2018 and it will become the main source for Southern Gas Corridor.
The gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets through expansion of the South Caucasus Pipeline and construction of TANAP and TAP.