Baku, Azerbaijan, July 23
By Leman Zeynalova– Trend:
Implementation of Roadmap for Beneficial Ownership Disclosure (RBOD) for Azerbaijan’s extractive industries may spill over into the first quarter of 2020, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) told Trend.
In May 2019, the Bank said RBOD completion is expected by November 2019.
“Although some further progress has since been made on the RBOD implementation, we are now anticipating that the completion of this work may spill over into Q1-2020. The administrative extension of the assignment is internally processed for consideration by ADB management,” said the Bank.
Out of the initial total technical assistance amount of $1 million for Shah Deniz Stage II Investment Plan, an amount of $600,000 has been allocated to assist the Government of Azerbaijan with the implementation of the RBOD for the country’s extractive industries.
“Another amount of $300,000 was cancelled in June 2018 (based on Government of Azerbaijan consent), since no additional Phase II financing support was expected for the Shah Deniz project. The remaining $100,000 was partly used for past due diligence for the Shah Deniz project, while the balance has been maintained as a contingency should any if any) additional due diligence be required,” said the Bank.
Shah Deniz Stage 2, or Full Field Development (FFD) is a giant project that will add a further 16 billion cubic meters per year (bcma) of gas production to the approximately 10 bcma produced by Shah Deniz Stage 1.
The current concept for Shah Deniz Stage 2 includes: two new bridge-linked offshore platforms; 26 gas production wells which will be drilled with 2 semi-submersible rigs; 500 km of subsea pipelines will link the wells with the onshore terminal; upgrade of the offshore construction vessels; expansion of the Sangachal terminal to accommodate the new gas processing and compression facilities.
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