Richard Melson
November 2004
CASPIAN
The International Institute for Caspian Studies
IICS * IICS * IICS * IICS * IICS * IICS * IICS
LAUNCH OF CONSTRUCTION OF SOUTHERN CAUCASUS GAS PIPELINE
19 October 2004
Turan Information Agency (Azerbaijan) English
(c) 2004 Turan Information Agency. All Rights Reserved.
The Company BP announced the beginning of construction of Southern Caucasus pipeline for transporting of gas from offshore field "Shahdeniz". The construction started from welding of pipes at 213rd kilometer of section of gas pipeline in the center of Azerbaijan. Welding of pipes is to be completed for 10 months period. 39 thousand pipes at are to be welded Azerbaijan section (443km) and 22 thousand pipes (250) km at Georgian section for this period. The completion of construction is planned in the forth quarter of 2005. Diameter of the pipeline - 42 inches, length of each pipe is 11,5 <. Japanese company Sumitomo accomplishes the supply of pipes. The contractors of the project (in Azerbaijan) are Greek company CCIC and French-American Alliance SPIE Capag/Petrofac -in Georgia. The same companies were contractors at construction of Azerbaijan and Georgian sections of pipeline Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan.
The president of the State oil company of Azerbaijan, Natik Aliyev, said that a significant part of preliminary works on construction of gas pipeline has already completed. The vice -president of the company BP-Shahdeniz Rob Kelly said, transportation of gas by Southern Caucasus pipeline from Baku to Erzurum (Turkey) is to start in 2006 -. * Participants of the project on production and transportation of gas from the field "Shahdeniz" are: ?P - 25,5% (technical operator), Statoil - 25,5% (commercial operator), SOCAR - 10%, LukAgip - 10%, Total - 10%, NIOC (National Oil company of Iran) - 10%, TPAO - 9%. Capacity of gas pipeline is to be at the first stage 16 bln. cubic meters of gas per year, with further increase up to 30 bln cubic meters. Total reserves of field are estimated 700 bln of cubic meters. ** The construction of the SCP was authorized on 27 February 2003. The construction of! 691 km (443 km in the territory of Azerbaijan, 248 km - in Georgia. Construction of pipeline from GeorgianTurkish border to gas distribution station in Erzurum is financed by Turkish state company BOTAS) pipeline costs $900 million.
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