The Shah Deniz gas condensate field is a very wide-scale project. Although the field was discovered in 1999, BP company and its partners managed to evaluate its real scale only during preparation for development of Phase 1 in about 2005.
Only after that BP geologists were sure that this is actually not one field, but rather a complex geological formation with various depths. The additional exploration and evaluation wells have proved that extractible resources of this field total 1.2 trillion cub.m. of gas.
However, after studying additional materials the Azerbaijani geologists supposed that deeper deposits contain extra gas resources.
As a pioneer of innovative technologies for the Caspian Sea studies among the western companies BP managed to collect more detailed information about the deeper laying deposits during several years. In 2012 it organized the exhibition of the future technologies, which could be used to develop those sections of the Caspian Sea that seem impossible today after 2025, for the administration of State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) in Baku. BP has already spent $1 billion for the technologies specially designed for the geological conditions of the Caspian Sea.
None of the world companies attaches so much importance to the Caspian resources. BP tries to forecast the Caspian hydrocarbons resources several years ahead.
It was announced yesterday that BP has offered the Shah-Deniz-3 project to the partners. According to the information, about 500 billion cub.m. of natural gas could be discovered on the deeper lying deposits of the field. The deposits could be developed till 2040 and even later. However, BP believes that works should be continued in this direction, because it will help to ensure stable deliveries of Azerbaijani gas to Europe.
The contract of purchase-sale of 16 billion cub.m. of gas from the Shah-Deniz-2 expires in 2044. By that time maximum of 400 billion cub.m. of gas will be extracted on Shah-Deniz-2 and about 200 billion cub.m. will be extracted from the Shah-Deniz-1 or 50% of the currently confirmed gas resources.
The works to develop a new part of the field will most likely begin in 2030 to extract the remaining volume of gas. The project is supposed to be even bigger – annual gas production will be about 25-30 billion cub.m. (Shah-Deniz-1 project will not be effective by that time).
If gas is discovered on the so-called exploration project Shah-Deniz-3, it will be implemented no earlier than 2060.
