BP Amoco announced on September 13th that it was on course to make the first deliveries of natural gas from Azerbaijan’s Shakh Deniz fields to Turkey at the end of 2002.
A BP Amoco-led consortium first discovered gas reserves in the giant offshore fields late in 1999, and BP Amoco estimates that the Shakh Deniz reserves are about one trillion cubic meters.
David Fitzsimmons, a BP Amoco vice president, indicated that renovation work on an existing Soviet-era pipeline was progressing. Fitzsimmons told an energy conference in Ankara that: “Over 100 people from BP are working on the project. We remain on target, but we cannot do it alone.
We need cooperation from Turkey and Azerbaijan.” He cited further investments of $2 billion as necessary in order for the project to pump gas from the Shakh Deniz fields to remain on track.
The pipeline from the fields to Turkey is expected to transport two to three billion cubic meters (bcm) per year starting in 2002, with an increase in volume to 16 bcm as the field’s potential increases.
In addition, Fitzsimmons said that BP Amoco remained committed to a $2.7 billion pipeline, which would transport Caspian crude to the West through Georgia to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
Current high oil prices, new discoveries in the region and the possibility of reducing the number of oil tankers passing through the Bosphorus straits make the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline (BTC) an attractive prospect.
( oilnavigator )
