Expansion of the South Caucasus pipeline will increase direct
investments to Georgia and improvement of the country's economy,
Georgian Energy Minister Aleko Khetaguri said after a decision by BP
to start construction of a new Azerbaijani gas pipeline, News Georgia
reports.
He spoke about the positive affect of Baku-Tbilisi-Jeykhan and
Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipelines on Georgian economy.
Operators of Shakh-Deniz gas condensate field, BP and SOCAR decided in
Baku this week to further develop the largest Caspian gas field and
the main routes of export of the fuel from the future Azerbaijani
fields, Turan reports.
President of BP-Azerbaijan company Rashid Javanshir said that the
concept of high-scaled development of Shakh-Deniz is based on
formation of all the necessary conditions for development and export
of 24 billion cubic meters of gas annually. They are currently
extracting over 8 billion cubic meters of gas and exporting it to
Turkey. They will need to export 16 billion cubic meters in the
future.
Javanshir clarified that construction of a new gas pipeline in the
country is the best solution for stable export of Azerbaijani gas. The
pipeline will be 400 kilometers long and will run parallel to
Azerbaijani section of the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP).
He added that increasing capacity of the SCP in Georgia requires
construction of two powerful pumping and compression stations, due to
the complicated landscape in Georgia.
The BP-Azerbaijan president said that they selected pipe capable of
transporting over 20 billion cubic meters of gas annually, requiring
only the power of the pumping and compression stations to be improved.
Turan reports that Stage-2 (high-scaled development of Shakh-Deniz
field) concept will be approved in 2011. The project involves
installation of two stationary platforms 150 deep.
The first gas from Stage-2 will be extracted in the fourth quarter of
2016, export will start in the first quarter of 2017. Stage-2 is
planned to transport 16 billion cubic meters of gas annually in 2019.
The project is worth $20 billion. The new export infrastructure may
require additional $3 billion of investments.
SCP was built in 2004-2006 within the framework of Stage-1 project to
develop Shakh-Deniz. It was built near Baku-Tbilisi-Jeykhan oil
pipeline of Azerbaijan. Both pipelines were constructed by a
Libyan-Greek service company CCIC. $1.1 billion were spent on
construction the pipeline from the Sangachal terminal on the Caspian
coast to the Georgian-Turkish border (680km). BOTAS covered the
expenses for construction of the gas pipeline from the
Georgian-Turkish border to the gas distribution point in Erzurum
(approximately 280km). SCP has a capacity of 8.2 billion cubic meters
of gas annually.
