SHAH DENIZ GAS FIELD AZERBAIJAN

February 10, 2008 at 10:58 pm | Posted in Economics, Financial, Globalization, Oil & Gas, Research | Leave a comment

Shah Deniz gas field

Shah Deniz gas field is the largest natural gas field in Azerbaijan. It is situated in the South Caspian Sea, off the coast of Azerbaijan, approximately 70 kilometers southeast of Bakubat, at a depth of 600 metres. The field covers approximately 860 square kilometers. The Shah Deniz gas and condensate field was discovered in 1999. It is to bring gas into Europe without having to traverse countries seen as politically unreliable such as Russia or Iran.[1]

Ownership

The Shah Deniz field is operated by BP Amoco which has a share of 25.5%. Other partners include Statoil Azerbaijan (25.5%), SOCAR Azerbaijan (10%), Elf Petroleum Azerbaijan (10%), LukAgip N.V. (10%), Oil Industries Engineering & Construction (10%), and Turkish Petroleum Overseas Company Limited (9%).

The Shah Deniz reserves are estimates to be between 1.5 to 3 billion barrels of oil, and 50 to 100 billion cubic meters of gas. Gas production at the end of 2005 was estimated to be approximately 7 billion cubic meters. The Shah Deniz field also contains gas condensate in excess of 400 million cubic meters.

Pipeline

The 692km South Caucasus Pipeline, operational from the end of 2006, transports gas from the Shah Deniz field in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea, to Turkey through Georgia, along the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

Recent developments

The Shah Deniz scheme started to produce gas at the end of December 2006 – three months later than expected – but was forced to close in January 2007. Azerbaijan then announced that the field had resumed output only to admit that it had been forced to shut down again with no definite date for supplies to be resumed.[2]

The shutdown has already caused problems for Georgia, which has been forced to buy emergency gas supplies from Russia at a very high price. Georgia is desperate to lose its energy – and political – dependence on Russia and saw Shah Deniz as an opportunity to do this.[3]

References

[1] Guardian 02-02-2007

[2] Guardian 02-02-2007

[3] Guardian 02-02-2007

Shah Deniz gas field