SOCAR cuts gas extraction from Shah Deniz field

/By AzerNews/

By Aynur Karimova

Azerbaijan produced over 3 billion cubic meters of gas from its giant Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea in 2014.

This figure stood at 4.8 billion cubic meters in 2013, a source in Azerbaijan’ state energy company SOCAR told Trend on January 15.

Part of Shah Deniz gas is delivered to Turkey and Georgia via the South Caucasus Pipeline, as well as to the gas compressor stations of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

Decrease of the gas production volume extracted by Azerbaijan is related with the increase of gas extraction by the Turkish side.

“Last year, Azerbaijan received only 3.1 billion cubic meters of gas from the Shah Deniz field,” the source noted.

The major part of Azerbaijan's natural gas is produced from giant Shah Deniz gas condensate field in the Caspian Sea.

The proven gas reserves hit 2.3 trillion cubic meters in Azerbaijan, but when it comes to the projected reserves, the figure can reach six trillion cubic meters.

It is expected that the volume of gas production in Azerbaijan will reach 30.2 billion cubic meters in 2018.

The gas which will be produced at the second stage of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field development will be the main source of Southern Gas Corridor, which envisages the transportation of the Caspian gas to European markets.