Azeri Minister: BP to Expand South Caucasus

Azeri Minister for Energy Natig Aliyev has said that BP is planning to expand the annual capacity of the South Caucasus pipeline to up to 37 billion cubic metres.

The minister, who was speaking in the Azeri capital Baku today, said the capacity of pipeline would be increased to deal with the additional gas supply made available from the second phase of the Shah Deniz field.

"BP has announced additional production of 16 billion cubic metres within the second stage and I think that these are minimal volumes of production; they should be much larger," the ABC news agency reported today.

"At present 9 billion cubic metres is produced per year and together with a forecasted 16 billion cubic metres on the second stage it will make 25 bn cu m of gas per year. We will expand it [the pipeline] to 35-37 billion cubic metres."

Outside of increased supply from the Shah Deniz project, the minister said the capacity requirement could even be expanded even further if Turkmenistan decides to also transport its gas through the pipeline.

If an agreement is reached with Turkmenistan, Minister Aliyev said, the capacity of the South Caucasus pipeline (also known as the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum Pipeline) would need to be increased to 55 billion cubic feet annually.