Socar CEO: SD2 Ready to Start 2018
Construction of Shah Deniz stage 2 (SD2) as well as the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (Tanap) will be complete by early 2018, the CEO of Azerbaijan's state-run oil company Rovnag Abdullayev said in response to questions from Natural Gas World during his meeting with reporters at the construction site for SD2's platform.
After several months of testing, the first gas of SD2 would be in injected to South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion (SCPX) and Tanap in mid 2018, he said: "One month is needed for fulling the pipelines with gas and then the commercial gas exports would start".
SD2 includes both the upstream project, the expansion of Sangachal gas terminal, SCPX and establishing two compressors; this overall project has now been 82%-completed. It is expected to start producing in mid-2018 from two wells that summer, producing 0.5 bn m3 of gas that year. SD2 production will increase gradually to 16bn m3/y within two years, with deliveries to be made to Turkey and Europe via Southern Gas Corridor (SGC).
Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the final section of the Southern Gas Corridor, is expected to handle 10bn m3/yr gas in 2021.
Socar CEO Rovnag Abdullayev in orange, flanked by reporters at the platform jacket construction site on September 22 (Photo credit: Azerbaijan Desk)
Answering a NGW question whether the country's internal demand growth would allow Azerbaijan to fulfil its gas export commitments in coming year, Abdullayev said that currently 92% of households in Azerbaijan are supplied with gas and that Socar's first priority is providing enough gas to the domestic sector. The number of households with access to mains gas had already increased from 780,000 to 1.9 million, he said.
"We have reduced gas losses in the transportation system from 16% to 4% during the last six years and have projects to increase the efficiency of gas consumer sectors to keep the domestic gas demand growth low," added Abdullayev. In some areas, such as the Hajigabul restrict, the level of gas wasting in transit and distribution networks had decreased to 1% this year, he added, while in others it was 20% but would be reduced in near future.