South Caucasus Pipeline

The South Caucasus Pipeline (also known as Baku–Tbilisi–Erzurum Pipeline, BTE pipeline, or Shah Deniz Pipeline) is a natural gas pipeline from the Shah Deniz gas field in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea to Turkey. It runs parallel to the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline (oil).

History

On 21 May 2006, the commissioning gas was pumped to the pipeline from the Sangachal Terminal. First deliveries through the pipeline commenced on 30 September 2006. Deliveries of gas from Shah Deniz gas field started on 15 December 2006.

On 12 August 2008, the pipeline operator BP closed the pipeline for the safety reasons because of the South Ossetia conflict. Gas supplies were resumed on 14 August 2008.

Description

The Template:Convert diameter gas pipeline runs through the same corridor as the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan pipeline until Erzurum, where BTC turns south to the Mediterranean. It is Template:Convert long, of which Template:Convert is in Azerbaijan and Template:Convert in Georgia. The initial capacity of the pipeline was Template:Convert of gas per year. For the second stage of the Shah Deniz development, the capacity would be increased up to Template:Convert by adding additional looping and two new compressor stations, costing $3 billion. As the pipeline has the potential to be connected to Turkmen and Kazakh producers through the planned Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline, Azerbaijan has proposed expanding its capacity up to Template:Convert by building a second line of the pipeline.

Economic impact

The first aim of the pipeline is to supply Turkey and Georgia. As a transit country, Georgia has rights to take 5% of the annual gas flow through the pipeline in lieu of a tariff and can purchase a further Template:Convert of gas a year at a discounted price. In the longer term, it will supply Europe with Caspian natural gas through the planned Southern Gas Corridor pipelines, such as the Trans Adriatic Pipeline and Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline.

Project company

The pipeline is owned by the South Caucasus Pipeline Company, a consortium led by BP and SOCAR. The shareholders of the consortium are:

• BP (UK) 28.8%
• TPAO (Turkey) 19%
• SOCAR (Azerbaijan) 16.7%
• Petronas (Malaysia) 15.5%
• Lukoil (Russia) 10%
• Naftiran Intertrade (Iran) 10%

The technical operator of the pipeline is BP and the commercial operator is Statoil. According to the PSA agreement, the commercial operatorship of the SCP was transferred to SOCAR starting on 1 January 2015.

South Caucasus Pipeline expansion (SCPx)

As a part of the Shah Deniz Full Field Development (FFD), otherwise called the Shahdeniz-2 project, BP will expand the pipeline through capacity extension by putting two additional compressor stations in Georgia and Turkey. This will almost triple the current transportation capacity of the pipeline up to 20 bcm/year.

This capacity increase would be able to accommodate an additional 16 bcm gas coming from the SD-2 project.

See also

• Nabucco Pipeline
• Shah Deniz gas field
• Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline
• TANAP
• Energy in Georgia (country)

References

• International Energy Agency: Caspian oil and gas: The supply potential of Central Asia and Transcaucasia. OECD, Paris 1998, ISBN 92-64-16095-7
• Charles van der Leeuw: Oil and gas in the Caucasus & Caspian: A history. Curzon, Richmond, Surrey 2000, ISBN 0-7007-1123-6
• John Roberts: Caspian oil and gas: How far have we come and where are we going? In: Oil, transition and security in Central Asia. RoutledgeCurzon, London [u.a.] 2003, ISBN 0-415-31090-3

External links

• BP's South Caucasus Pipeline website
• Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan / South Caucasus pipelines environmental and community investments website
• Articles about the Southern gas corridor and the energy issue of the South Caucasus in the Caucasus Analytical Digest No. 3

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