BAKU, March 12 (Reuters) - Partners in Shah Deniz aredrawing up plans for the third development stage of the majorgas project after 2025, expecting to reach peak output at about25 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas per year, a source at Azeristate energy firm SOCAR said.
Azerbaijan's biggest gas field, Shah Deniz is beingdeveloped by consortium partners BP, Statoil, SOCAR and others, offering an alternative gas supplier forEurope as the continent tries to wean itself off Russian energydeliveries.
Shah Deniz I has been pumping gas since 2006 and has anannual production capacity of about 10 bcm of natural gas.
From around 2019 Shah Deniz II is expected to produce 16 bcmof gas per year, with 10 bcm earmarked for Europe and 6 bcm forTurkey.
"Shah Deniz consortium partners have already agreed onseismic works and exploratory drilling under the third stage ofthe Shah Deniz project," a SOCAR official told Reuters.
He said BP had presented its own preliminary estimations,according to which the field may contain 1.7 trillion cubicmetres of gas, up from a current estimate of 1.2 trillion cubicmetres.
"We will need modern technologies and additional investmentfor Shah Deniz III," he said.
Europe is looking to Azeri gas to ease its dependence onRussian supplies, which currently account for around 30 percentof all EU gas imports. The figure rises to nearly 100 percent insome EU states, such as Bulgaria and Lithuania.
Europe, where gas demand is projected to rise by 20 percentby 2035, according to the International Energy Agency, alsoneeds to safeguard supply in the face of rising Asian buying.
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