Azeri Gas Output to Rise to 55 BCM by 2025

President of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) Rovnag Abdullayev has said that Azeri gas production is set to rise to between 50 and 55 billion cubic metres a year by 2025.

Speaking to The Business Year Journal, Mr. Abdullayev also said that this year would be a deciding year for one of Azerbaijan's largest gas fields, the Shah Deniz field, and the Southern Gas Corridor.

In relation the second phase of the Shah Deniz field, the executive said this year marked a propelling of the project which could not be stopped once implemented.

"2012 is the year for decisions, and in terms of starting the full-scale implementation of the Shah Deniz Phase II project, there will also be financial decisions, after which there is no point of return," he said.

This year will also see decisions on the pipelines that will service that field, and will determine how the Southern Gas Corridor is opened.

In relation to the Trans-Anatolian pipeline (TANAP), which is one of several bidding to service the field, Mr. Abdullayev said that he expects the pipeline to have a capacity of 16 billion cubic metres. This pipeline would then either be supplied via Turkish shareholder Botas's gas grid or through a newly built pipeline.

"Both are considered as key elements of the Southern Gas Corridor," the Trend news agency reports him as saying. "We agreed with the authorities in Turkey to check the feasibility of both projects and to make a final solution by mid-2012."