Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend / Turkey are ready to take gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field. "As soon as the gas comes at the end of July we will send it to Greece and from there we will send to Italy," Turkish Energy Minister Hilmi Guler was quoted by the Ihlas news agency on the 5th of June.
Speaking at a European Union-Turkey energy conference in Istanbul, Guler also reiterated his support for the troubled Nabucco pipeline project linking Turkey to Austria.
Also speaking at the conference, EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said that the Nabucco pipe "Will enable Turkey to become the fourth artery of the EU for natural gas supply. But we must fill it." "Soon, the [European] Commission will propose a coordinator in order to accelerate the project," Piebalgs stated.
Azerbaijan has sent primary supplies of natural gas from the Shah Daniz field to Turkey for pressuring the Turkish section of the South-Caucasus Pipeline. Commercial volumes of Azerbaijani gas have not yet passed the Georgian-Turkish border.
Commercial gas from Shah Daniz is transported to Georgia and Azerbaijan through the South-Caucasus pipeline.
The contract on development of the Shah Daniz off-shore field was signed on the 4th of June, 1996. The sides to the agreement are BP (operator) -25.5%, Statoil - 25.5%, NICO - 10%, Total - 10%, LukAgip - 10%, TPAO- 9% and SOCAR- 10%.
Some 8.6bln cu m of gas per year will be produced in Stage-1 of the development of Shah Daniz.