Azeri gas pipeline network inaugurated

June 8, 2018
Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s president, has inaugurated the new Southern Gas Corridor pipeline network.

Offshore staff

BAKU, Azerbaijan – Ilham Aliyev, Azerbaijan’s president, has inaugurated the new Southern Gas Corridor pipeline network that will carry gas from the Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea to Turkey this year and to Western Europe from 2020.

The newly-expanded BP-operated Sangachal terminal near Baku is due to export first commercial gas deliveries to Turkey by mid-year. The expansion was designed to accommodate extra output from the Shah Deniz 2 field development in the Azeri sector of the Caspian.

BP’s head of Upstream, Bernard Looney, said Shah Deniz 2 should increase Azerbaijan’s gas production by 16 bcm/yr. The gas will head through the expanded South Caucasus Pipeline in Azerbaijan and Georgia, before joining Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) in Turkey.

A connection to the new Trans Adriatic Pipeline will take the gas onward through Greece and Albania and across the Mediterranean Sea into Italy. These projects are collectively known as the Southern Gas Corridor.

BP claims that it is arguably the global oil and gas industry’s most significant and ambitious undertaking yet, involving seven governments and 11 participating companies.

06/08/2018