Azerbaijan to supply gas to Bulgaria

A Bulgarian-Azerbaijani committee met in Baku this week to discuss the development of a Black Sea route to export natural gas from Azerbaijan to Bulgaria. The project is expected to be completed before 2013, said Bulgaeria's Bulgartransgaz director Ivan Drenovichki.

The committee discussed the options for shipping compressed natural gas to Bulgaria with the participation of Bulgartransgaz, SOCAR and the Shah Deniz consortium represented by Statoil, BP and Total. It is expected that Bulgaria will export some of the gas onward to other European detonations.

Once the all the work is completed Bulgaria is expected to be receiving two billion m³ of natural gas a year, securing as much as 50 per cent of its natural gas consumption with supplies from Azerbaijan.

Source: News Azerbaijan

For more news and expert analysis about the Caspian region, please see Caspian Focus.

Statoil in talks about potential pipeline projects in Shah Deniz gas field

Statoil is to begin talks with prospective customers over the supply of around 10 billion m³ of gas per year, from the Shah Deniz gas field in Azerbaijan.

"We're planning bilateral negotiations with potential customers...," said a spokeswoman for Statoil, before adding that the customers include three "potential pipeline projects". She also denied claims that Shah Deniz 2 consortium is planning a tender process, as reported in the Turkish media.

A second development phase of the Shah Deniz gas field, located in the south Caspian Basin, plays an integral role in the European Union's plan to expand its gas supply away from Russia, and offers the best potential for an easy export to the 27-country bloc. The European Commission has been strongly pushing to build a pipeline to carry that gas through Turkey to its countries.

The second development stage of Shah Deniz is expected to reach output of 16 billion m³ a year from 2016 or possibly as early as 2014.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

For more news and expert analysis about the Caspian region, please see Caspian Focus.

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