BP flips gas production switch back on at giant platform off Azerbaijan

UK-headquartered energy giant BP has restarted production from a platform in the Caspian Sea at one of the world’s largest gas-condensate fields and the company’s largest gas discovery ever.

BP temporarily suspended operations on January 10, 2025, at its Shah Deniz Alfa (SDA) platform, following a technical issue that was found at a subsea pipeline used to handle the transport of gas condensate between the platform and the Sangachal terminal.

Shortly after the company assured the subsea pipeline’s technical malfunction did not cause environmental damage or compromise the safety of the platform and pipeline, Aleksandar Vučić, President of Serbia, revealed that Azerbaijan informed the Balkan country of a suspension in daily gas deliveries of 1.7 million cubic meters because of technical issues.

These issues were believed to be connected to the Shah Deniz malfunction. In addition, gas supplies to Bulgaria were suspended because of technical reasons from January 7, 2025. Bulgargaz Energy Company expected gas supplies to resume on January 11, 2025. Vučić also confirmed that Azerbaijan would keep supplying gas to Serbia.

The Shah Deniz Alpha platform resumed production from the Shah Deniz gas condensate field on January 18, following the full resolution of the technical issue in the subsea condensate export line between the Shah Deniz Alpha platform and the Sangachal terminal.

The company underlined that the production and export operations were gradually ramping up. BP expects this process to take a few more days. Located in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, Shah Deniz is said to be one of the world’s largest gas and condensate fields, which was discovered in 1999.

The agreement on the exploration, development, and production sharing for the Shah Deniz prospective area, signed on June 4, 1996, entered into force on October 17, 1996. The field’s reserves are estimated at 1 trillion cubic meters of gas and 243 million tons of condensate.

Developed in two phases, Shah Deniz Phase 1 (SD1) includes the drilling of 11 wells, the construction of platforms, Sangachal Terminal, and the 692-kilometer South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) to Türkiye. After the first gas sales began in 2006, the commissioning of the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline occurred in 2007.

This enabled Azerbaijan to start gas exports to Georgia and Türkiye. The full development of Shah Deniz, or Shah Deniz Phase 2 (SD2), is perceived to be one of the largest and most complex gas projects. BP is working on boosting the hydrocarbon arsenal from assets in Azerbaijan.

Therefore, the firm started production from its 48-slot production, drilling, and quarters platform in the Caspian Sea at its giant oil field in April 2024.