BP says Azerbajan Shah Deniz natural gas field to start production end-Sept

'Production will start at the end of the month and will grow in the course of the year,' BP Azerbaijan's president David Woodward told reporters at the oil-rich nation's main oil and gas terminal Sangachal.

The Caspian's Shah Deniz field, whose major shareholders are BP, Norway's Statoil ASA and the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR, will feed a new pipeline that leads to Turkey, where it will link up with European networks.

Woodward said Shah Deniz gas would be fed through the new South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP), which traverses Azerbaijan and Georgia before terminating in the Turkish city of Erzerum, and would reach Turkey by the end of October.

The pipeline is projected to reach a capacity of 8.8 bln cubic meters of gas per year in the next few years.

After 2012 its capacity could be expanded to 20 bcm per year, BP has said. AFX

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