European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is discussing the opportunity to grant $200 million credit to finance 10 percent share of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan in the project on “Shahdaniz” gas field development, the EBRD’s Baku office announced.

The SOCAR has submitted a complete package of ecological documents on the “Shahdaniz” project to the EBRD, which is to be put forward at the public hearings soon. The credit is supposed to be confirmed in 2004. Implementation of the “Shahdaniz” project’s first phase in 2003 is estimated at 750-800 million U.S. dollars. In all, the “Phase 1” includes: installation of TPG500 platform for drilling 15 wells at the depth of up to 105 meters, underwater preparation of the field of 5 wells to be drilled at the depth of 300 meters, construction of two 100 meters long each underwater pipelines form TPG 500 platform to Sangachal terminal, construction of the gas and condensate processing units at the onshore terminal, and construction of the South-Caucasian pipeline from Azerbaijan through Georgia to the Turkish border. Total cost of the project is 3,2 billion U.S. dollars.

Estimated reserves of the “Shahdaniz” field make up 1 trillion cubic meters of gas. The project’s shareholders are BP (25,5%), “Statoil” (25,5%), SOCAR (10%), “Total” (10%), “Lukoil” (10%), “OIEC”(10%) and “TRAO” (9%).