Gas production to increase at Shah Deniz field

The average daily volume of gas production at Azerbaijan’s giant Shah Deniz gas condensate field in the Caspian Sea has reached 28 million cubic meters, a source at Azerbaijan’s state energy company SOCAR told Trend Agency on November 14.

“Gas is produced from six wells at the field and the volume of gas production is equal to 28 million cubic meters,” the source said.

The previous data said the average daily volume of gas production at Shah Deniz field was equal to 27-27.5 million cubic meters.

In the first nine months of 2014 the around 7.25 billion cubic meters of gas and 1.7 million metric tons of condensate were produced at the field.

The forecasts for late 2014 show the volume of gas production is expected to exceed 9 billion cubic meters, while the volume of gas condensate production will exceed the forecast 2.6 million metric tons.

The Shah Deniz field, one of the world's largest gas-condensate fields, was discovered in 1999. Its gas reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters.

The field has proved to be a secure and reliable supplier of gas to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, and Europe. The gas which will be produced at the second stage of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field development will be the main source of the Southern Gas Corridor, which envisages the transportation of the Caspian gas to European markets.

The Shah Deniz consortium announced the selection of TAP as the main route for transporting its gas to Europe in late June. The initial capacity of TAP will amount to 10 billion cubic meters per annum with the possibility of expanding to 20 billion cubic meters per annum. The TAP's construction project is planned to start in 2015.