Turkey starts gas imports from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field

July 11, 2007
Turkey has started importing gas from Shah Deniz gas-condensate field in Azerbaijan via the South Caucasus Pipeline, said Statoil AS, commercial operator for that project.

Uchenna Izundu
International Editor

LONDON, July 11 -- Turkey has started importing natural gas from Shah Deniz gas-condensate field in Azerbaijan via the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP), said Statoil AS, commercial operator for that project.

Delivery was delayed by technical problems that the Shah Deniz partners encountered with production from the wells (OGJ Online, Jan. 23, 2007).

Turkey is importing varied amounts of gas depending on how much it nominates, a spokesman from BP PLC, technical operator of Shah Deniz, told OGJ. The field produces 8 million cu m/day of gas and 25,000 b/d of condensate from three wells. Another well will be brought on stream later this year, the spokesman said.

The SCP system transports gas from Shah Deniz field in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea, through Georgia, and on to the Georgia-Turkey border. Following its commissioning, the pipeline was successfully tied-in with the Turkish pipeline system at the Georgia-Turkey border. Turkish gas firm Botas is responsible for transporting gas from the Turkish border through a new pipeline to the city of Erzurum.

BP expects to produce an average of 63,000 boe/d in 2007 from Shah Deniz. Plateau production from Stage 1 will be 8.6 billion cu m/year and approximately 30,000 b/d of condensate.

Gas output is expected to reach 12 billion cu m/year by 2012 during the project's second stage, and 20 billion cu m/year by 2015 during the third stage.

BP has 25.5% interest in SCP. Other licensees are Statoil 25.5%, Azerbaijan SCP Ltd. 10%, OAO Lukoil 10%, Naftiran Intertrade Co. Ltd. 10%, Total SA 10%, and Turkish Petroleum Corp. 9%.

The Ministry of Industry and Energy of the Azerbaijan Republic is a nonfunding shareholder.

Contact Uchenna Izundu at [email protected].