BAKU, Azerbaijan, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- Azerbaijan expects to make key decisions regarding its giant Shah Deniz natural gas field in the Caspian Sea before the end of the year, an official said.
Investors with BP said they expect to announce plans for Shah Deniz this year. Vagif Aliyev, a vice president with the State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan, one of the project's partners, said that meant good things for the lauded second phase of developments at Shah Deniz, Bloomberg News reports.
SOCAR said that Shah Deniz was a "giant project" designed to move natural gas from Azerbaijan to consumers in Europe and Turkey.
French supermajor Total announced last week that the reserve potential from its latest find in the Shah Deniz field was around 7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and associated condensates.
The Azeri energy company said pipeline groups involved in the proposed Italy-Greece natural gas interconnector, Trans-Adriatic Pipeline and Nabucco are called on to provide it with information regarding the transit of Shah Deniz gas to Europe by Oct. 1.
The momentum follows a series of breakthroughs for Europe's plans to ease Russia's grip on the regional energy sector.
The European Union gets the bulk of its oil and natural gas through imports. European Commissioner Gunther Oettinger this week said his bloc was moving forward with securing gas deals with Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.
