Shah Deniz gas field

Shah Deniz
Shah Deniz gas field is located in Caspian_Sea Shah Deniz gas field Location of Shah Deniz
Country	Azerbaijan,
Offshore/onshore	Offshore
Coordinates	39°58′N 50°13′E{{#coordinates:39|58|N|50|13|E|type:landmark|| |primary |name= }}
Operator(s)	Statoil (25.5%), SOCAR (10%), Total S.A. (10%), LukAgip, a joint company of Eni and LUKoil (10%), Oil Industries Engineering & Construction (OIEC) (10%), and Turkish Petroleum Overseas Company Limited (9%).
Field history
Discovery	1999
Start of production	2006
Abandonment	NA
Production
Current production of gas (billion cubic meters per year)	7
Estimated oil in place	3,000 million barrels (~×10^ t)
Estimated gas in place (billion cubic meters)	1200

Shah Deniz gas field is the largest natural gas field in Azerbaijan. It is situated in the South Caspian Sea, off the coast of Azerbaijan, approximately 70 kilometres (43 mi) southeast of Baku, at a depth of 600 metres (2,000 ft). The field covers approximately 860 square kilometres (330 sq mi). The Shah Deniz gas and condensate field was discovered in 1999. It is to bring gas into Europe without having to traverse countries like Russia or Iran, deemed to be politically unreliable by some in order to promote their projected Nabucco pipeline.

Ownership

The Shah Deniz field is operated by BP which has a share of 25.5%. Other partners include Statoil (25.5%), SOCAR (10%), Total S.A. (10%), LukAgip, a joint company of Eni and LUKoil (10%), NIOC (10%), and TPAO (9%).

Reserves

The Shah Deniz reserves are estimates to be between 1.5 billion barrels (240,000,000 m³) to 3 billion barrels (480,000,000 m³) of oil equivalent from 50 to 100 billion cubic meters of gas. Gas production to date at the end of 2005 was estimated to be approximately 7 billion cubic meters (600 mmcf/day avg). The Shah Deniz field also contains gas condensate in excess of 400 million cubic meters.

Pipeline

The 692 kilometres (430 mi) South Caucasus Pipeline, which began operation at the end of 2006, transports gas from the Shah Deniz field in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea to Turkey, through Georgia.

The associated condensate is mixed with the oil from the ACG field and is transported to Turkey through Georgia, along the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline.

Recent developments

The Shah Deniz scheme started to produce gas at the end of December 2006, three months later than expected, but was forced to close briefly in January 2007. Azerbaijan then announced that the field had resumed output only to admit that it had been forced to shut down for a few weeks due to start up technical issues.The shutdown forced Georgia to buy emergency gas supplies from Russia at a market price. Georgia hoped that production from Shah Deniz will allow the country to decrease its energy — and political — dependence on Russia.

By July 2007, the Shah Deniz gas plant at Sangachal Terminal was fully operational, with all buyers of Shah Deniz gas taking gas.

Shah Deniz stage 2 has now been approved. This project will include an additional offshore gas platform, sub sea wells and expansion to the gas plant at Sangachal Terminal, at an estimated cost of at least $10 billion.

See also

• Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli
• Umid gas field
• Shafag-Asiman
• Nakhichevan field

External links

• Shah Deniz, Rigzone website
• Shah Deniz, Offshore Technology website
• Shah Deniz and the South Caucasus gas pipeline, Statoil websiteet:Şahdəniz