Azerbaijan could up gas output to 20 bcm/year by 2016 - Socar
BAKU. June 5 (Interfax) - Azerbaijan has the potential to increase gas production to 20 billion cubic meters in 2015, not including gas reinjected into reservoirs, the head of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), Rovnag Abdullayev said Wednesday at the opening of the Caspian Oil & Gas conference.
This would further increase Azerbaijan's role in ensuring the energy security of Europe, Abdullayev said.
He said SOCAR is now wrapping up commercial negotiations with potential buyers for Azerbaijan's gas in Europe, and received offers are being assessed.
Proposals for gas prices and gas transit tariffs are being assessed, and the company expects a final decision to be made at the end of this month on the route for exporting Azerbaijan's gas to Europe, Abdullayev said, adding that determined work is being done with the government of Turkey to carry out the project to build the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP).
He recalled that TANAP will have capacity of 16 bcm per year, of which 6 bcm will go to Turkey and 10 bcm to Europe.
In future, this pipeline will carry gas from other fields in Azerbaijan besides Shah Deniz, he said. There has been some progress in Socar's negotiations with BP, Total and Statoil on their participation in the TANAP project, and in general this pipeline is the only acceptable alternative source of gas supplies to Europe, Abdullayev said.
Construction of TANAP will begin in 2014 and the first gas will be shipped to Europe in 2019, he said.
Azerbaijan's forecast reserves of hydrocarbons are estimated at 10 billion tonnes of fuel equivalent and this will be enough for another 100 years, but the government is making a determined effort to reduce the country's oil dependency by investing oil revenues in human resources, Abdullayev said.
Gas production in Azerbaijan, including reinjection of gas, totalled 26.9 bcm in 2012.
The TANAP pipeline is intended to take Azerbaijani natural gas from the Shah Deniz field from the Georgian-Turkish border to Turkey's western border. The project will cost an estimated $10 billion-$11 billion.
Socar has an 80% stake in TANAP, and Turkey's Botas and TPAO hold 20%. Socar intends to retain a 51% stake, but is in talks to give the other 29% to BP (12%), Statoil (12%) and Total (5%).