The Shah Deniz-2 project has become one of the most complicated in the history of the world oil and gas industry, BP vice president for the Southern Gas Corridor, Joseph Murphy, said at the opening of the CASPIAN OIL & GAS 2017 Conference in Baku.
"The largest direct foreign investments were made in this Azerbaijan's project. The underwater production system offshore Caspian was first manufactured and installed in this project," the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza cited him as saying.
Murphy said that at the moment BP and its partners spent about $72 million on social projects and the development of public institutions in Azerbaijan.
"In Azerbaijan, we have installed the largest platforms in the Caspian Sea - a total of 9 world-class platforms that have been operated reliably and efficiently for 20 years. I am proud to say that the facilities for production and processing of products at Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli relate to the number of the largest in BP," BP Vice President for the Southern Gas Corridor said.
He recalled that BP has built a huge terminal for processing hydrocarbons in Sangachal - one of the largest in the world with a daily output of 1.2 million barrels of oil and about 50 million cubic meters of gas. "All our offshore platforms are connected to this terminal by a complex network of offshore pipelines. This infrastructure has been expanded once, and the second stage of expansion is currently underway," Murphy said.
"This terminal is a vital link in the oil and gas industry of Azerbaijan, where oil and gas flow into the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and South Caucasus gas pipelines that connect the Caspian fields with the Mediterranean markets, which will allow Azerbaijan and BP to increase their future value and take strategic positions in the region," he explained.
BP Vice-President for SGC recalled that only more than 24 thousand Azerbaijani citizens were employed in the Shah Deniz-2 project and pipeline projects during peak periods of activity, and about 3 thousand Azerbaijani citizens work in the BP company.
"I am happy to report that the Azerbaijani and Georgian sections of the Shah Deniz-2 project worth $28 billion have now been completed by 93%, and the first gas is expected to be received in 2018. Work continues on pipelines passing through Turkey, Greece, Albania and Italy. Deliveries of the first gas to Europe are expected in 2020," Joseph Murphy concluded.
