The South Caucasus Pipeline Company (SCPC) announced that on 1 August 2021, the process of transition of the technical operatorship of the South Caucasus Pipeline Company (SCPC) from BP Exploration (Shah Deniz) Limited to SOCAR Midstream Operations Limited was finalized.
The South Caucasus Pipeline is one of the four segments of the Southern Gas Corridor, which serves natural gas exports from Azerbaijan to Turkey and Europe via Georgia.
The transfer of technical operatorship was carried out in fulfillment of the revised SCPC Pipeline Owners’ Agreement (or project agreements), signed in December 2013. The agreement entitles SOCAR to undertake the technical operatorship of SCPC on the first anniversary of the SCPX construction completion date. The SCPX construction was completed in March 2019. A year later, in March 2020, SOCAR Midstream Operations Limited officially became the Technical Operator of SCPC with the agreed transition period.
The South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) was built to export Shah Deniz gas from Azerbaijan to Georgia and Turkey. The pipeline starts from the Sangachal terminal near Baku. It follows the route of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) crude oil pipeline through Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkey, where it is linked to the Turkish gas distribution system.
The pipeline was put into operation at the end of 2006. The expansion of the South Caucasus Pipeline is associated with the full-scale development of the Shah Deniz fields and the opening of the Southern Corridor. The project was launched in 2013, and after commissioning in June 2018, it began to transport gas to Turkey and in December 2020 to Europe.
