Azerbaijan to calculate its long-term gas balance

Azerbaijan will calculate its gas balance for the next 30-35 years, the head of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), Rovnag Abdullayev, told reporters on Wednesday.

The calculation will be made not only taking into account gas exports to Europe, but also forecasts for the development of Azerbaijan and an increase in its gas needs, Abdullayev said.

He said that given the growing needs of Azerbaijan, certain volumes of gas will be retained as a reserve. One of these reserves is the Umid field. Its reserves, estimated at 200-250 billion cubic meters, can be used in the republic during 70-80 years.

"The issue of attracting partners to develop this field and exports of gas from it are not under consideration," Abdullayev said.

According to the latest date, proven gas reserves are estimated at 2.6 trillion cubic meters.

Touching upon the issue of the construction of the Trans-Anatolian pipeline (TANAP), designed for export of Azerbaijani gas, Abdullayev said that experts are now working to develop an intergovernmental agreement between Azerbaijan and Turkey to sign it as soon as possible.

SOCAR head has also once again confirmed that Azerbaijan is ready to provide its territory for the transit of Turkmen gas to the EU. Negotiations on this issue are now held between Brussels and Ashgabat.

Azerbaijan and Turkey signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the consortium that will build a gas pipeline to supply gas from Shah Deniz gas field to Europe through Turkey. BOTAS has a 20 per cent stake in TANAP, while SOCAR holds 80 per cent in the project.

The initial capacity of the pipeline will be 16 billion cubic meters. Some 6 billion cubic meters of the volume will be supplied to Turkey, while the rest will be transported to Europe.

At present, Azerbaijan is choosing a route for gas exports to Europe via Turkey. Azerbaijan is exporting gas to Turkey via the South Caucasus gas pipeline.


/Trend/