The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a US$1bn private and public sector assistance to expand the Shah Deniz II gas project in Azerbaijan. The financial assistance includes a US$500m private sector loan to the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) company and a US$500m sovereign-counterguaranteed partial credit guarantee.
The Shah Deniz gas field is one of the largest gas fields in the world. It is operated by a consortium of BP (28.8%, operator), SOCAR (16.7%), TPAO (19%), Statoil (15.5%), Lukoil (10%) and NICO (10%). It currently produces about 10 bcm/year and the second phase, Shah Deniz II, is expected to add 16 bcm/year of gas production as of 2019-2020. Up to 10 bcm/year would be exported to western Europe through the Southern Gas Corridor (via Georgia and Turkey on to Greece, Albania, and Italy) and 6 bcm/year would be exported to Turkey. The second phase is estimated at US$26bn.