site.btaNatgas Supplies from Azerbaijan Expected to Resume on January 15

Natural-gas supplies from Azerbaijan are expected to resume on January 15 after they were suspended on January 7, BTA has learned from state-owned supplier Bulgargaz.

On January 11, it transpired that the suspension was due to a malfunction of a pipeline carrying natural gas from the bottom of the Caspian Sea to the Sangachal Terminal on the Caspian shore south of Azerbaijan's capital Baku. The report was confirmed by British energy giant BP, the lead partner in a consortium operating the Shah Deniz gas field in Azerbaijan, in an answer to a question from the local Trend News Agency.

The agency quoted BP Azerbaijan as saying: "For operational reasons, production and export operations from the SDA [Shah Deniz Alfa] platform were suspended and the platform has been safely shut down. All people on the platform are safe and there is no environmental impact. All offshore facilities including the SDA platform and the pipeline are also safe. We are currently working to resolve the problem and resume normal operations as quickly as possible."

Last week, Bulgargaz said natural-gas supplies from Azerbaijan were suspended on January 7. Alternative supplies were secured by Turkish energy company BOTAS under its agreement with Bulgargaz, the Bulgarian company said.

In a statement on January 11, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that Azeri natural-gas supplies to Serbia were suspended as well.