BP
has
agreed to increase the capacity of the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (BTE) gas
pipeline, also known as the South Caucasus pipeline, to up to 60 billion cubic
metres a year.
The
agreement was made with the Azeri government and was announced by Deputy Energy
Minister Natig Abbasov today at a conference in Azerbaijan. Initially, the
agreement will see BP increase the capacity of the pipeline to 35 billion
cubic metres a year, increasing to 60 billion cubic metres in time.
"Such an
increase may be conducted before 2017 or 2018," Azeri news outlet ABC
reports him as saying today . "In the future, the capacity of this
infrastructure will be increased up to 60 bn cu m a year.
"Additional
expansion depends on the commissioning of new gas fields in Azerbaijan and
organization of Turkmen gas transit to Europe through Azerbaijan."
The BTE pipeline is a 692 kilometre pipeline
that transports gas from the Azeri Shah Deniz field. The gas is then
transported through Georgia to the Turkish-Georgia border.
BP is the operator of the pipeline.