Azerbaijani gas exports from Shah Deniz down 5% in H1
BAKU. July 25 (Interfax) - Exports of Azerbaijani gas in the context of Stage-1 of the development of the Shah Deniz deposit amounted to 2.1 billion cubic meters (bcm) in the first half of this year, 4.6% down from the same six months last year, the country's State Statistics Committee told Interfax.
"All in all, Azerbaijan's trunk gas pipelines transported ten billion cubic meters of gas in the first half, two percent lower than the figure for the analogous period of 2012," a committee spokesperson said.
Exports of Stage-1 gas amounted to four billion cubic meters in 2012. The 690-km Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum pipeline (442 km in Azerbaijan and 248 km in Georgia) was built to carry Azerbaijani gas from Shah Deniz to Turkey.
The contract to develop Shah Deniz was signed on June 4, 1996 in Baku and ratified by the Milli Majlis (parliament) on October 17 of that year. The Shah Deniz project members are BP (operator, 25.5%), Statoil (25.5%), State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (Socar) (10%), Lukoil (10%), Nico (10%), Total (10%), and TPAO (9%).
Gas sales contracts between Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Georgia have been concluded in the context of Stage-1 development.