Baku News

BAKU, April 30 (RIA Novosti) - BP is planning to produce 7.7 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 1.9 million tons of condensate from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea in 2008, the British energy giant said on Wednesday. BP is developing the huge field under a production sharing agreement along with six other companies including Norway's Statoil, France's Total, and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan. The company said that 3.1 billion cu m of gas and 0.8 million tons of condensate had been produced at Shah Deniz in 2007. Daily output currently stands at 19.8 million cu m of gas and 40,000 barrels of condensate. During the project's first stage, annual gas output at the Shah Deniz field is expected to reach 8.5 billion cubic meters annually. The company said operational spending will reach $123 million this year, with capital spending at $496 million. Annual gas output is expected to reach 12 billion cubic meters by 2012 during the project's second stage, and 20 billion cubic meters by 2015 during the third stage.