BP launches new stage

BP President in Azerbaijan Mr. David Woodward updated President Aliyev Monday on the work undertaken within the "Contract of the Century", progress of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Shah-Daniz projects. The head of state was also briefed of the future transportation of Azeri gas to Turkey, construction schedule of the BTC till 2004 and plans to increase yearly oil output under the Contract of the Century to 10 million tons. The meeting was also attended by the director of the BP business group coordinator Gordon Birrelli and president of the Shah-Daniz, Inam and Alov-Araz-Sharg consortium Rashid Javanshir. Mr. Woodward underscored that the BP-operated projects were entering a new stage, where operations are expected to be wide-scale and much broader, as grandiose construction work will be conducted.

Mr. Woodward stressed that a total of $8 to $9 billion will be invested in the field work within the coming 12 months. The BP official updated President Aliyev of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan MEP, "Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli" and "Shah Daniz" fields.

Touching upon the BTC pipeline, Mr. Woodward said: "Detailed engineering on the pipeline project is expected to commence in mid-June, which will enable to sanction the construction of the route in mid-2001. If the schedule is adhered to, the BTC may be commissioned in 2004.".

Mr. Woodward also said that detailed engineering on the "Shah-Daniz" prospect may be sanctioned provided that negotiations with the Georgian government are timely accomplished and necessary agreements signed. Briefing the Azeri president of the "Shah Daniz" gas field, BP business group coordinator Gordon Birrell accentuated that the field would be developed in several stages and the first gas supplies would be delivered to Turkey in 2004. According to him, $2.7 billion will be invested under the first stage.

Mr. Woodward also confirmed that the first gas supplies from the "Shah Daniz" prospect would be possible in late 2004 and 8 billion cubic meters of natural gas achieved in 2007 as part of the first stage. Providing detailed information on the "ACG" project, Mr. Woodward said that 6 million tons of crude oil would be extracted per annum as part of the project till 2004. According to him, oil will be produced from the "Azeri" field too as part of Phase 1. In the next years, production from the field will be hiked to over 20 million tons. "We will succeed in increasing the volume of Azeri oil to 50 million tons a year starting 2007", Mr. Woodward said. Mr. Woodward stressed that Azerbaijan has grossed $1.24 billion in oil incomes as part of these projects. $606 million of the sum came from oil revenues, including $360 million in bonus payments and $246 in profit oil. He also added that Azerbaijan's yearly oil revenues would be over $5 billion since 2011.