Aliyev: Putting into operation Shakh-Deniz is no less important event than BTC project offshore gas field

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“Successfully realized Azerbaijani oil strategy bears its fruits. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline is already functioning. We have huge oil production which will increase;” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is quoted by Azerbaijani state AzTV-Channel as stating, speaking at opening ceremony of Sheki module electric power station. The state head said: “The Shakh-Deniz offshore gas field will be put into operation this year. It is a very big, huge project, too. It will provide Azerbaijan with natural gas because we urgently need it and buy it yet abroad. We buy 4,500mln of cubic meters of gas in Russia; $500mln were paid for it in 2006. If one takes into consideration fact that gas prices increase and Azerbaijan still needs gas, supplied from abroad, growing amount and rising prices will, of course, influence upon us. That is why; putting into operation Shakh-Deniz gas field is the same historic event like Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan project.”  

As REGNUM was informed at Azerbaijani State Oil Company (ASOC), natural gas which will be produced at the field, whose reserves total more than 1trillion of cubic meters of gas, will be exported via South Caucasian Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum pipeline. The pipeline’s construction is already at its final stage. $568mln were spent for construction in frames of project in 2006; the whole project’s cost exceeded $4bln. Though, $2.9mln were planned to be spent initially. The increase of the project’s cost is connected with materials’ price increase, prices for other expenditures, and the construction’s retardation in Georgian territory.     

It should be stressed that putting into operation of the pipeline will satisfy needs for natural gas of both Azerbaijan and its close neighbors and partners – Turkey and Georgia. Gas may be transported to Turkey and from there to European markets via the pipeline. Many states are already interested in the project: Greece, Italy, Ukraine, and the Baltic States.