Azerbaijan is developing its giant Shah Deniz field, with gas reserves of over 1 trillion cubic meters of gas, under a production-sharing agreement signed in 1996. Seven companies, including BP, Norway's Statoil, France's Total and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan are involved in the project.
"From Tuesday, our gas has started flowing into the transportation and distribution system of Turkey," said Mamed Mirzoyev, head of the SOCAR press office.
Turkey agreed in December 2006 to transfer part of its 2007 quota of 3 billion cubic meters of gas produced at the Shah Deniz field to Georgia and Azerbaijan.
Natik Aliyev, the Azeri energy and industry minister, said at that time that Azerbaijan and Georgia needed 1.3 billion cubic meters and 800 million cubic meters from this quota, respectively, to avoid energy shortages in winter, and that the remaining volume would be delivered to Turkey.
