At present the all 692km South Caucasus gas pipeline is underground. The land along the all route in the Georgian sector is under restoration, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) told Trend.
Over the last three quarters the Company restored the top-soil, installed control sensors over erosions and prepared land for growing of plants, as well as carried out additional seedlings in case of need. We also achieved progress in hydro-testing of the pipeline, SOCAR stressed.
The transportation of the first gas to Turkey via the pipeline is expected on 30 September. The pipeline is being constructed through Azerbaijan and Georgia along the same route as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan. Gas will be transported from the fields Shah Daniz. The participants of PSA on Shah Deniz are Р'Р , the operator of 25.5%, Statoil (25.5%), SOCAR (10%), LUKAgip (10%), NICO (10%), Total (10%), and TPAO (9%).
At present TPG-500 rig is under construction. Its delivery is supposed to be carried out in the 2nd quarter of 2006. The capital expenses on the project for 2006 comprise $865m.