Azernews.Az

By Sabina Idayatova

The annual production volume of gas in the first phase of the development of the gas condensate field Shah Deniz is planned to increase from 9 billion to 10.4 billion cubic meters.

BP Shah Deniz development vice president Al Cook made the remark at a press conference in Baku, AzerTag state news agency reported.

Currently, work is underway to increase production volumes, and last week BP reached record levels, which translate into an annual equivalent of about 9.8 billion cubic meters of gas.

Cook said gas production from the field is carried out with five wells.

He said an additional 1.4 billion cubic meters in the new contract will be sold to Azerbaijan's state news agency SOCAR.

"This new contract is beneficial to both sides and opens up new possibilities for the realization of the project Shah Deniz," Cook said.

He further said extension of the contract Shah Deniz until 2048 is very important as a long-term exploration in the field can be planned.

Cook said on the field, there are three areas, where it is planned to conduct seismic surveys. Exploration work in the field continues to re-analyze the data, which in turn gives the opportunity to say that the field may contain more stocks.

The volume of gas reserves in the formations that are currently being developed in the field is 33 trillion cubic feet (0.9 trillion cubic meters), whereas in the whole of the deposit reserves are estimated at 40 trillion cubic feet (1.1 trillion cubic meters).

The Shah Deniz Consortium made the final investment decision (FID) on the second stage of offshore gas condensate field development on December 17.

The agreement was signed by SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev and the regional president of BP in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey Gordon Birrell.

The gas which will be produced in the second phase of Shah Deniz field is considered as the main source of the Southern Gas Corridor project. A consortium of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field development announced its choice of the TAP project in late June, as a gas transportation route to the European markets.

Shah Deniz-2 project authorization means the transition of the project from the concept into an immediate implementation stage.

Shah Deniz reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas. The cost of the second phase of development of Shah Deniz gas condensate field is estimated at $25 billion.