BP and its partners have started commercial delivery of natural gas from the US$28bn Shah Deniz Phase 2 project in the Caspian Sea offshore Azerbaijan. Operated by BP, the expansion project is expected to add 16 bcm/year of gas production as of 2019-2020 to the first phase that currently produces about 10 bcm/year. Up to 10 bcm/year will be exported to western Europe through the Southern Gas Corridor (via Georgia and Turkey on to Greece, Albania, and Italy) and 6 bcm/year will be shipped to Turkey via the new South Caucasus pipeline expansion.
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), TPAO (19%), SOCAR (16.7%), Petronas (15.5%), Lukoil (10%) and NICO (10%). Shah Deniz is the starting point of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) series of pipelines that will transport natural gas from the Caspian Sea straight to European markets.