Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, June 1 -- BP PLC has begun line-fill of the South Caucasus Gas Pipeline, which will transport gas from Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea off Azerbaijan to Erzurum in Turkey.
Azerbaijan's Industry and Energy Minister Natik Aliyev told reporters that construction of the SCGP is in its last stage as planned and that the line has been subjected to hydraulic testing.
Aliyev said Shah Deniz gas would reach the Georgian-Turkish border by the end of September.
The 690 km pipeline runs from Shah Deniz gas field through Baku and the Georgian capital of Tbilisi to Erzurum, Turkey, alongside the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) crude oil pipeline, also near completion (see map, June 27, 2005, p. 61).
Participants in the project include BP and Statoil ASA, 25.5% each; State Oil Co. of the Azerbaijani Republic (Socar), Lukoil, NICO, and TotalFinaElf, 10% each; and TPAO (Turkey), 9%.
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].