SOCAR: Europe may receive Shah Deniz gas by 2019
Gas from the second phase of Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz gas project is expected to reach Europe in 2019, Azeri state energy firm SOCAR said on Tuesday.
‘Production at Shah Deniz II will start in 2018. The pipeline will be filled and gas will reach European borders by 2019,’ SOCAR First Vice-president Elshad Nasirov told the Euronest conference in the capital Baku.
Azerbaijan’s biggest gas field, Shah Deniz is being developed by consortium partners BP, Statoil, Azeri SOCAR, Total and others. It is estimated to contain 1.2 trillion cubic metres of gas.
Shah Deniz I has been pumping gas since 2006 and has an annual production capacity of 8 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas.
Output from Shah Deniz II is expected to reach 16 bcm per year, with 10 bcm earmarked for Europe and 6 bcm for Turkey.
Nasirov said SOCAR would invest $3 billion into the Shah Deniz II project in 2013 and would make a decision on spending an additional $20 billion in October.
The Shah Deniz consortium is expected to decide by mid-year whether to transport Shah Deniz II production via the Nabucco-West pipeline or the rival Trans-Adriatic pipeline (TAP).
Under a deal signed last month the consortium owns stakes in both pipeline projects.
