TBILISI, April 3 (Reuters) - British oil major BP announced the appointment of Joe Murphy as a new vice presidentin charge of the Southern Corridor project, includingdevelopment of the Shah Deniz II gas field in Azerbaijan.
BP, Statoil, Azeri state energy company SOCAR andother firms are developing Azerbaijan's biggest gas field as analternative source of supply to Europe as the region tries toreduce reliance on Russian gas.
The Southern Corridor project includes development of ShahDeniz II and construction of pipelines in Azerbaijan, Georgia,Turkey and in Europe.
Murphy will be responsible for the project's implementationin Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey as well as representing theproject to European gas buyers and the European Commission, BPsaid in a statement on Thursday.
He replaces Al Cook, who was appointed as the head of thegroup chief executive office.
Shah Deniz I has been pumping gas since 2006 and has anannual production capacity of about 10 billion cubic metres(bcm).
Shah Deniz II is expected to produce 16 bcm of gas per yearfrom around 2019, with 10 bcm earmarked for Europe and 6 bcm forTurkey. (Reporting by Margarita Antidze; Editing by)
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