CORRECTED: Azerbaijan urged to look to Asian energy market
(Name adjusted at end of first paragraph)
LONDON/BAKU. Nov 23 (Interfax) - The Nabucco gas pipeline project is less attractive than other projects to transport Caspian energy resources to Europe, the co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS), Gal Luft said.
The Nabucco project has lost its relevancy, as there are now cheaper and better alternatives and Nabucco is the least attractive of all the projects in the Southern corridor, Luft told Interfax in London.
He also thinks the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline project is unlikely to proceed. So far, everything that has been opposed by Russia has not happened. This is a reality and the project's chances are currently not very high, Luft said.
Luft said that Azerbaijan should look to the Asian market for its energy exports. This is an interesting market because it has both demand and money, so it should be seen with no less enthusiasm than Europe, he said, adding that Turkmenistan is pursuing this policy.
Luft recommended the eastern market as more promising than the West, in part because it has China, whose demand for gas will see ever greater growth.
The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR), as the lead negotiator on the export of gas from the Shah Deniz field, has received final proposals from the three main pipeline projects to take Azerbaijani gas to Europe: ITGI (Italy-Turkey-Greece Interconnector), TAP (Trans Adriatic Pipeline) and Nabucco.
Azerbaijani gas is to be shipped to Europe under the $20 billion Phase 2 of the Shah Deniz project. Annual production will total 16 billion cubic meters of gas.
Production under Phase 2 was initially supposed to begin in 2012, but due to the outstanding issues concerning transportation, the schedule has been pushed back to 2017. The contract to develop Shah Deniz was signed in Baku on June 4, 1996 and ratified by Azerbaijan's parliament, the Milli Meclis, on October 17 the same year. The project shareholders are BP (operator) with 25.5%, Statoil with 25.5%, SOCAR with 10%, Lukoil with 10%, NICO with 10%, Total with 10% and TPAO with 9%.
