BAKU
Azerbaijan exported 40.8 percent more gas to Turkey and Europe from January to July than it did a year ago from its giant Shan Deniz offshore field, official data showed, as the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) continues to help the country increase its share in a market until now dominated by Russia.
The volume of gas exported through the SGC rose to 9.775 billion cubic metres (bcm) in the first seven months of 2021, data released by the State Statistics Committee showed.
The BP-led consortium which develops the Shah Deniz project in Azerbaijan has been pumping gas from the offshore field’s first phase since 2006, delivering more than 10 bcm a year of gas to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey through the South Caucasus Pipeline.
The second phase started output in 2018, adding 16 bcm of gas production capacity at its peak to bring total capacity to 26 bcm.
Azerbaijan started supplying commercial natural gas to Europe from the second stage of the Shah Deniz project via its $40-billion Southern Gas Corridor in December 2020, when the corridor’s last part, the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), became operational. The project hopes to reduce Europe’s dependence on natural gas supplies from Russia, which currently controls 34 percent of the continent’s gas market.
The 878 km TAP pipeline connects to the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) on the Turkish-Greek border in Kipoi, crossing Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before reaching Italy’s southern coast.
Gas to Europe was delivered through the TAP. Exports to Turkey were made through the TANAP and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipelines.
Around 13.8 bcm of gas was exported to Turkey since TANAP was put into operation in the summer of 2018, according to data ending August 1, 2021.
The share of gas exports from the Shah Deniz field accounted for 49.3 percent of the total volume of gas transported through Azerbaijan’s main gas pipelines in the first seven months of 2021.
Azerbaijan’s goal is to eventually supply the European market with 10 bcm of gas a year, including 8 bcm to Italy and a combined 2 bcm to Greece and Bulgaria. This year, the country plans to export 5 bcm to Europe and over 12 bcm to Turkey.
Apart from BP and Azerbaijan’s state energy firm SOCAR, participants in the Shah Deniz consortium are Turkey’s TPAO, Malaysia’s Petronas, Russia’s Lukoil and Iran’s NIOC.