South Caucasus Pipeline

South Caucasus Pipeline (also: Baku-Tblisi-Erzurum Pipeline, PTE pipeline or Shah-Deniz Pipeline) is a natural gas pipeline to transport natural gas from the Shah Deniz gas field in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea to Turkey. On 21 May 2006, the commissioning gas was pumped to the pipeline from the Sangachal terminal. First deliveries of gas started around 15 December 2006.^[1] The pipeline is being constructed in the same corridor as the BTC Pipeline in order to minimize the environmental and social impact, using the same integrated project team. The pipeline is 692 kilometers long and the annual capacity will be up to 16 bcm, with the potential of being connected to Turkmen and Kazakh producers through the planned Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline. The first aim of 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 tariff and can purchase a further 0.5 billion cubic metres of gas a year at a discounted price. In longer perspective South Caucasus Pipeline will supply Europe with Caspian natural gas through the planned Nabucco, Turkey-Greece and Greece-Italy pipelines. The pipeline is commissioned by a consortium led by BP and Statoil. The shareholders of the consortium are:

• BP (UK) 25.5%
• StatoilHydro (Norway) 25.5%
• State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) (Azerbaijan) 10%
• LukAgip (Russia/Italy) 10%
• TotalFinaElf (France) 10%
• Oil Industries Engineering and Construction (OIEC) (Iran) 10%
• Türkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortaklığı (TPAO) (Turkey) 9%

The technical operator of pipeline is BP and commercial operator is Statoil.

See also

• Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline
• Nabucco Pipeline
• Shah Deniz gas field
• Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline

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

1. ^ "Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz Field On Stream", OilVoice.com, 2006-12-15. Retrieved on 2006-12-18. 

External links

• BP's South Caucasus Pipeline website
• SCP Commissioning Commences, by BP,dated as 1 June 2006