Shah Deniz returns on stream

State Oil Company (SOCAR) told APA that the first gas from the well has already reached Azerigas national grid.

The first Shah Deniz gas from well SDA-01 came on December 15, 2006. Total daily gas production capacity of the well is 5.6mln cubic meters of gas and 2.5bln cubic meters of condensate. The Field is expected to produce 5.5bln cubic metres of gas this year. This year Shah Deniz Field will deliver 2.5bln cu m of natural gas to Azerbaijan for domestic use, 2.8bln cu m of gas to Turkey and 0.25bln cu m of gas to Georgia (transit tax).

Gas output in Shah Deniz Field was indefinitely suspended on Jan. 5.  Technical failure had occurred in the first well in early January which resulted in gas leakage. On Jan. 14 the production was resumed for an after-repair trial.

However, it was decided to shut in the well again to carry out remedial work on Jan. 22 for complete elimination of the failure.

BP is the 25% owner and operator of Shah Deniz, which is believed to contain 1 trln cubic metres of gas, making it the largest gas discovery ever made by the group. Shah Deniz gas is pumped to Turkey via Georgia, onward to Europe through Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline.