Azerbaijan begins gas production from East North flank of Shah Deniz field

bp has launched gas production from the East North flank of the Shah Deniz field as part of the Shah Deniz Stage 2 project.

All construction work and operational tests on the East North were successfully completed and the system was put into operation, bp told Report.

The capacity of existing installations at the field is currently about 79 million standard cubic metres of gas per day (about 29 billion per year).

 Shah Deniz Stage 2, or Full Field Development (FFD) is a giant project that will add a further 16 billion cubic metres per year (bcma) of gas production to the approximately 10 bcma produced by Shah Deniz Stage 1.

Offshore, the Shah Deniz 2 project includes 26 subsea wells, 500km of subsea pipelines and flowlines and a new bridge-linked double platform. Gas is transported onshore through an 85 km pipeline to the Sangachal terminal, which underwent a major expansion to accommodate the new increased gas output. The project also expanded South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) - 428km of new pipeline in Azerbaijan and 59km in Georgia, including three new compression facilities pushing the gas across its 3,500 km long journey to Europe.

On December 31, 2020, Shah Deniz celebrated a significant achievement by commencing first ever commercial gas deliveries to European markets via the newly-completed Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) pipeline system. The Shah Deniz field is the starting point of SGC and the commencement of gas deliveries to Europe from Shah Deniz marks the full integration of the entire SGC gas value chain, stretching 3,500 kilometres from Azerbaijan to Europe. With this important achievement Shah Deniz represents a new source of energy supply for Europe diversifying its energy market and strengthening its energy security.