Azerbaijan, Baku / corr. Trend S.Aliyev / Minister of Industry and Energy of Azerbaijan, Natig Aliyev said that Turkey will begin receiving gas from Azerbaijan's field of Shah Deniz in September.
"Those applications made by Turkey and its obligations have not yet been implemented. To my knowledge, Turkey will begin receiving gas in September," Natig Aliyev said. The delay in Turkey's receiving the gas is one of the reasons, due to which, the current gas production has been reduced.
According to the Minister, each company should regulate its own gas production in accordance with the current gas sale.
"The Azerbaijan Gas Supply Company works according to those laws which envisage the necessity to increase the volume of gas depending on the market."
On the other hand, gas excess is observed in Azerbaijan. Due to the measures taken, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) suddenly increased its gas production. In the summer period, the Republic's gas consumption significantly decreases not only due to seasonal use, but also due to measures in supplying gas to the population and industrial enterprises.
Presently gas produced from Shah Deniz has significantly decreased due to the absence of commercial demand. Presently Azerbaijan receives gas in the volume of nearly 5mln cu m. Nearly 1mln cu m of gas is delivered to Georgia for $63/th cu m. Yet Turkey does not receive gas via the South Caucasus pipeline.
After Turkey begins receiving fuel, the production in three wells will equal nearly 15mln cu m per day.
The contract on developing the Shah Daniz offshore field was signed on 4 June 1996. The parties 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.