BP-Azerbaijan has suspended operations at its offshore Alpha platform at the Shah Deniz gas condensate field due to a technical fault in a subsea gas pipeline used to transport gas condensate, company spokesperson Tamam Bayatly said on Friday.
“There are no issues with the platform itself,” Bayatly clarified. The technical fault was identified in the subsea pipeline connecting the Alpha platform to the Sangachal terminal. As a precaution, operations on the platform have been halted, she added.
Bayatly emphasized that the platform, its personnel, and associated facilities remain entirely safe. “We are undertaking all necessary work to resolve the issue as quickly as possible,” she stated.
Located 70 kilometers southeast of Baku in the southern Caspian Sea, the Shah Deniz field was first discovered by Soviet geologists in 1954. The area belongs to the South Caspian Basin, which is geologically distinct from the rest of the Caspian Sea due to its underwater extensions of the Greater Caucasus and Kopetdag mountain ranges.
A contract for developing Shah Deniz was signed on June 4, 1996, and ratified by Azerbaijan's parliament later that year. Production began in December 2006, with Stage 1 operations carried out via the Alpha platform. Gas and condensate production for Stage 2 utilizes the Bravo platform.
Field Ownership and Output
The Shah Deniz consortium includes:
- BP plc (operator, 29.99%)
- Lukoil (19.99%)
- TPAO (19%)
- NICO (10%)
- Cenub Qaz Dehlizi (21.02%)
From January to November 2024, the field produced 3.1 million tons of gas condensate, a 6.1% decline compared to the same period in 2023, according to Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Energy.
Operations at Shah Deniz are critical to Azerbaijan's role as a significant energy exporter, particularly through the Southern Gas Corridor, which supplies natural gas to Europe.
Politics
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Last week, two more prominent journalists were arrested in Azerbaijan. Shahnaz Beylargisi became the eighth female journalist to be imprisoned in recent months. Beylargizi and her former colleague Shamshad Aga worked for Toplum TV, an independent news outlet that was shut down in 2024.
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Moscow wants Armenia and Azerbaijan developing a peace treaty that would signify a long-term settlement of their relations, the Deputy Head of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mikhail Galuzin, told in an interview with Izvestiya. Earlier, officials from Armenia and Azerbaijan stated that the peace treaty was almost 90% agreed upon.
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