Decision on Shah Deniz II buyer delayed

BAKU - Reuters

Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company, SOCAR, has delayed its decision to specify the export route set to reshape future gas flows to Europe through Turkey, the company said yesterday.

“We are still reviewing the proposals presented to us for construction [of the pipeline],” SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev said at a press meeting in Baku.

He said the decision process might continue until the end of the first quarter of 2012.

Three companies, Nabucco, Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy (ITGI) and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), are vying to build the infrastructure to carry gas to Europe from the second phase of Azerbaijan’s major Shah Deniz gas field.

One option is a pipeline from Turkey to the Romanian-Hungarian border, a route proposed by British oil group BP days before a deadline for companies to submit their bids.

SOCAR announced previously that the company and partners in the Shah Deniz consortium would decide the pipeline’s route by November.

Shah Deniz, developed by BP, Statoil and SOCAR, has been estimated to contain 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas, which European companies hope can supply them for decades, cutting their dependence on Russia.

Production was launched in 2006, with the second phase expected to begin by 2017.