Azerbaijan Ups Exports Through South Caucasus Pipeline

Azerbaijan has ramped up exports from the massive Shah Deniz field, with an increase of 98,200,000 million cubic metres of gas last month exported through the South Caucasus pipeline, compared to the same month last year.

The increase sees exports through the pipeline, also known as the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (BTE) pipeline, total 434,700,000 cubic meters of natural gas in January of 2012.

This month's increase follows a drop in export in 2011 from 2010's export amounts, which totalled 4.5 billion cubic metres of gas for last year, a drop of 400 million cubic metres on the year previous.

The South Caucasus is the major pipeline supplying gas from the Shah Deniz field in Azerbaijan, over a distance of 692 kilometres, to Georgia anf Turkey.

The South Caucasus pipeline is operated by a BP- and Statoil-led consortium. Those companies hold a 25.5 per cent stake each in the pipeline. Azeri company SOCAR, Total, Lukoil and NICO each hold a ten per cent stake, while TPAO holds the remaining nine per cent stake.