Azerbaijan: Shah Deniz Production Grows

Production at Azerbaijan's giant Shah Deniz natural gas field has risen to 24 million cubic meters daily, Azerbaijani and Russian news sources reported May 4. In 2008, the daily output averaged 22 million cubic meters.

Field operator BP said that production increased despite ongoing drilling, the Regnum news agency reported. BP is preparing for a second production phase when annual output is expected to reach 12 billion cubic meters and, later, 20 billion cubic meters.

Production at Shah Deniz is currently split between Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia. The field supplies the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) that carries gas across Georgia to the Turkish city of Erzurum. Georgia siphons off s share in lieu of a transit fee and gets additional volumes at a preferential rate. Should the Nabucco pipeline project be implemented, it will be linked to SCP and will carry Azerbaijani, and potentially Central Asian, gas on to Europe.