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    Shah Deniz Gas Production Suspended, BTC Pipeline Explodes

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Summary

Gas production from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas field has been suspended. An unexplained explosion has hit the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars-Erzurum gas pipeline in eastern Turkey.

by: Dalga

Posted in:

Natural Gas & LNG News, Pipelines, Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) , News By Country, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Caspian Focus

Shah Deniz Gas Production Suspended, BTC Pipeline Explodes

Gas production from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas field has been suspended.

BP, operator of Azerbaijan's offshore Shah Deniz gas field announced that the production from the Shah Deniz platform was suspended on August 2nd and will last approximately 20 days.

"In accordance with the plan, production from the Shah Deniz platform will be suspended on 2nd August for about 20 days to enable efficient maintenance, inspection and project work to be undertaken," BP said in a statement. 

The message added that this is a routine, planned program and is part of normal operations: "The shut-down is also included in the annual production forecast."

Azerbaijan exported 62% of produced gas from Shah Deniz Stage 1 (SD1) during the last year however figures were projected to reach 70% in 2015. SD1’s gas production would be 9.8 billion cubic meters (bcm) for the current year.

BP announced on May 13th that gas production volume from this field was 2.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) in first quarter of 2015 (1Q15). The figure was 2.32 bcm in 1Q14.

Shah Deniz gas reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters. The contract for development of the field was signed on June 4, 1996. The shareholders are BP, operator (28.8%), AzSD (10%), SGC Upstream (6.7%), Petronas (15.5%), Lukoil (10%), NICO (10%) and TPAO (19%).

Shah Deniz Stage 2, or Full Field Development (FFD) is also a giant project that will add a further 16 bcm of gas production to SD1's gas production by late 2018.

Explosion in Baku-Tbilisi-Kars-Erzurum gas pipeline

A day after BP's announcement, Turkey announced that an unexplained explosion has hit the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars-Erzurum gas pipeline in eastern Turkey.

A provincial governor has told Anadolu Agency on August 4th the blast happened in the early hours of Tuesday morning at a section of the pipeline located in the Sarikamis district of Kars province; gas flow was cut in Yagbasan village for safety reasons.

"An investigation is underway into the explosion and the necessary measures have been taken," Ozdemir said.

Last week, the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline was attacked in southeastern Sirnak province, in an incident blamed on Kurdistan Workers’ Party militants.

The bombing took place 18 kilometers inside the Cizre district of Sirnak province, next to Turkey’s border with Iraq.

On the other hand, an explosion hit the Iran-Turkey natural gas pipeline in the eastern Turkish province of Ağrı on July 28th.

Iran resumed gas export to Turkey on August 2nd.