BAKU, June 22 (Reuters) - Norway's FMC Kongsberg Subsea AS and Britain's OneSubsea (UK) Ltd have won contracts forsubsea infrastructure totalling $363 million for Azerbaijan'sShah Deniz gas field.
A consortium led by BP said it awarded theconstruction contracts to help develop the Shah Deniz II projectunder the Caspian Sea, which offers Europe a chance to reducereliance on Russian gas.
Shah Deniz, Azerbaijan's biggest gas field, is beingdeveloped by partners including Britain's BP, Norway's Statoil, Azeri state energy company SOCAR and the SouthCaucasus Pipeline Company.
Shah Deniz I has been pumping gas since 2006 and has anannual production capacity of about 10 billion cubic metres(bcm) of natural gas.
The next phase, Shah Deniz II, is important for Europe interms of providing an alternative gas supply to Russia's Gazprom. It is expected to produce 16 bcm per year from around2019, with 10 bcm earmarked for Europe and 6 bcm for Turkey.
A contract worth $297 million was awarded to FMC KongsbergSubsea AS.
The scope of work under this contract includes the supply ofequipment for the production clusters consisting of subseamanifolds, associated controls and connection equipment. Thedelivery of equipment will take place in phases over a periodfrom 2016 to 2021.
A further contract worth $66 million for the second of threeplanned batches of subsea production trees and ancillariesrequired for the full field development was awarded to OneSubsea(UK) Ltd.
The delivery of equipment will take place in phases over aperiod from 2016 to 2021.
The BP-led partners previously signed about 20 contractsunder the Shah Deniz II project with most of work alreadystarted at the construction sites in the capital Baku. (Reporting by Nailia Bagirova and Margarita Antidze; Editing byWilliam Hardy)