The South Caucasus Pipeline Company (SCPC) announces that as from 20 March 2020 technical operatorship of the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) has been transferred from BP Exploration (Shah Deniz) Limited to SOCAR Midstream Operations Limited, a fully-owned subsidiary of SOCAR, it was noted in joint statement by BP-Azerbaijan and SOCAR

The South Caucasus Pipeline is one of the main sections of the Southern Gas Corridor, EDNews.net reports citing Report News Agency.

This is in accordance with the revised SCP Pipeline Owners' Agreement, signed in December 2013 as part of the final investment decision on the Shah Deniz Stage 2 and South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion (SCPX) projects. The agreement provides for SOCAR to become the technical operator of SCP on the first anniversary of the SCPX construction completion date.

The transfer covers the operation of all dedicated SCP facilities in Azerbaijan and Georgia. The facilities that are common to both the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline and SCP will continue to be operated by BP in its capacity as a common operator. There is no change to the operatorship of the Sangachal Terminal, BTC, or the Western Route Export Pipeline (WREP), which will all continue to be operated by BP.

SOCAR and BP will continue to work together in 2020 to implement all aspects of the transition process effectively.

Rovnag Abdullayev, President of SOCAR, said: "We have been the commercial operator of SCP since 2015, conducting all commercial operations of the pipeline on a high level. Now SOCAR takes over the technical operatorship of SCP as envisaged in the pipeline owners' agreement.

As an SCPC shareholder, we have always been pleased with SCP operations' safety, which has been among the best in the industry. We would like to thank BP for their excellent partnership and operatorship. As the new technical operator, we will use our successful international experience and work closely with all of our partners to sustain the high level of safety, reliability, and environmental performance of SCP."

Gary Jones, BP's Regional President for Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey, said: "We welcome SOCAR as the new technical operator of SCP. As the biggest shareholder in Shah Deniz and SCPC, we remain committed to working with SOCAR to ensure continued safe and reliable operation of the pipeline.

We believe SOCAR has great experience of safe and efficient project delivery. This was demonstrated during the four years of successful construction, followed by the safe operation of TANAP. Also, SOCAR has been a beneficial commercial operator of SCP for nearly five years now. We remain committed to helping SOCAR in the planned management of the change process to ensure that the transition is completed safely and with no impact on the overall gas transportation operations.

We are proud of our staff and workforce, whose commitment and dedication have been vital to the excellent safety performance of the entire export system. We are confident that with the transfer of operatorship, the same level of commitment to safe operations and the high quality of capabilities of the staff will continue".

The SCPC shareholders are: BP (28.8%), TPAO (19.0%), SOCAR (10.0%), SGC (6.7%), PETRONAS (15.5%), LUKOIL (10.0%) and NICO (10.0%).

SCP is a world-class system and has been operating safely, reliably, and efficiently since 2006 delivering gas to the regional markets of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey. To accommodate the incremental Shah Deniz 2 production, the SCP system has been further expanded to export Shah Deniz 2 volumes to Turkey (6 bcma) and Europe (10 bcma).

The expanded section of the pipeline commenced commercial deliveries to Turkey in June 2018. Starting in 2020, it will enable the export of Shah Deniz gas to Europe for the first time.

During 2019, the average daily throughput of SCP was 29 million cubic meters of gas per day.

The SCP export system includes 443 km of pipeline in Azerbaijan and 248 km of pipeline in Georgia. The system also consists of two compressors at the Sangachal Terminal in Azerbaijan, and two compressor stations and two metering stations in Georgia.