Shakh Deniz has been courted by Russian gas giant Gazprom and an EU-sponsored consortium which is working on the Nabucco gas pipeline, which is expected to rival Russian plans to supply Europe with the fuel.
"We are continuously exploring all options to commercialize the fields, so we will be selecting the solution which is giving the best commercial situation for the company," Bengt Lie Hansen told the Reuters Russia Investment Summit. Asked whether the Shah Deniz partners, which include BP, would sell gas from the project's second phase to Russia or to partners in the Nabucco pipeline project, he replied: "I can only say that we are looking for the best options and that means it is an open issue."
The second phase of Shah Deniz was delayed to 2016 due to the lack of progress on Nabucco transit agreements. In June the chief executive of Gazprom said the company was ready to start buying small volumes of Shah Deniz gas from as early as next year to supply volumes to Russia's southern regions.
The Russian company also said it might use the gas to export it to Europe. StatoilHydro and BP control Shah Deniz, which produces around 15 million cubic meters of gas per day and has reserves of 1.2 trillion cubic meters. Azeri state energy company SOCAR is also a partner, along with Russia's LUKOIL, France's Total and Iranian and Turkish state firms.
