Azerbaijan, Baku / corr Trend K.Ramazanova / Turkey's first delivery of gas to Greece from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field will be delayed until the second week of August, a senior Turkish Energy Ministry official said.
The official told Reuters the pipeline across the Meric river along the border had not been completed as planned. Earlier this month the country's energy minister said Turkey was ready to receive gas from Shah Deniz and would send it to Greece at the end of July, Reuters reports.
The Turkish Energy Minister has stated recently that Turkey is prepared to deliver Azerbaijani gas to Greece at the end of July.
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
Presently gas produced from Shah Deniz has significantly decreased due to the absence of commercial demand.
Presently three wells on the Shah Deniz field are fully ready for operation. "Within Phase-1, about 8.6bln cu m of gas will be produced from the development project of "Shah Deniz". In 2007, 2.8bln cu m of gas will be produced from "Shah Deniz."
The contract on the development of the offshore Shah Deniz field was signed on the 4th of June 1996.
The participants of the contract are BP (operator) -25.5%, Statoil - 25.5%, NICO - 10%, Total - 10%, LukAgip - 10%, TPAO- 9% and SOCAR - 10%.