The consortium of the pipeline project ‘White Stream’ believes that the Caspian region has enough gas resources for realization of several projects within the European ‘South Corridor’ project, which involves diversification of sources and routes of energy supplies to EU countries, Trend reports, citing the chairman of the British 'White Stream Pipeline Company, Robert Pirani.
According to BP, on January 1st 2010 the total discovered gas reserves in such Caspian countries as Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan exceeded 11 trillion cubic m. ‘South Corridor’ is a priority energy project for the EU, aimed at improving the energy security of European countries and including such projects as ‘White Stream’, ‘Nabucco’, ITGI (Turkey-Greece-Italy) and the Transadriatic pipeline (TAP). Shareholders of ‘South Corridor’ consider Azerbaijani gas to be the basis for filling its gas pipelines at the first stage of realization. The second stage is ‘Shakh Deniz’ gas, which will be extracted in 2016-2017.
The ‘Shakh Deniz’ gas field in Azerbaijan is the world’s largest. Its gas reserves have approximately 1.2 trillion cubic m. The peak extraction of the first stage will be approximately 8.6-9 billion cubic m. In 2010 they plan extraction of 7.8 billion cubic m. The gas is currently transported to Georgia and Turkey using the South Caucasian gas pipeline. At the second stage the gas extraction will reach 25 billion cubic m annually.
Pirani believes that only the gas from Azerbaijan will be enough for ‘White Stream’ and ‘Nabucco’. Pirani considers that Azerbaijan can achieve high gas export status using other gas fields. ‘Shakh Deniz-2 has not been launched yet. Azerbaijan could increase gas export in 5-7 years with the launch of ‘Shakh Deniz-2’, the ‘Absheron’ structure, ‘Nakhchyvan’, ‘Bakhar’, ‘Umid-Babek’ and development of deep-lying gas of the oil field ‘Azeri-Chirag-Giuneshli’. Pirani said that this list can be enlarged with ‘Shafag-Asiman’, ‘Zafar-Mashal’ and ‘Ashrafi-Dan Ulduzu’. Some of the fields will be developed faster after conclusion of the licensing documentation process for ‘White Stream’.
At first, ‘White Stream’ will produce 8 billion cubic m annually, then 16 billion and finally 32 billion. The complicated situation in the Caspian region will require more than one transport project operating, Pirani believes.
Cooperation between the ‘White Stream’ and ‘Nabucco’ projects will reduce the transport risks and increase the levels of gas reserves.
