During the third quarter of 2026, operational expenditures for the Shah Deniz project amounted to approximately $2.002 billion, while capital expenditures reached approximately $1.078 billion. Compared to the same reporting period in 2025, operating costs rose by 9 percent and capital expenditure increased by 42.6 percent.
Sea-news.az reports citing bp’s third-quarter 2026 results report, that gas deliveries from the Shah Deniz field to markets in Azerbaijan (to SOCAR), Georgia (to GOGC), Turkey (to BOTAŞ), to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline for multiple facilities, and to buyers in Europe continued throughout the quarter.
During the first nine months of the year, total production from the field—combining output from the Shah Deniz Alpha and Shah Deniz Bravo platforms—stood at approximately 20 billion standard cubic meters of gas and about 3 million tonnes (roughly 21 million barrels) of condensate. This represents a decrease of 4.8 percent for gas and 3 million barrels for condensate compared to the corresponding period of 2025.
The production capacity of existing Shah Deniz facilities currently stands at approximately 79 million standard cubic meters per day (about 28.8 billion per year).
In the first quarter of 2026, subsea activities on western flank wells continued under the Shah Deniz 2 project framework.
During the third quarter of 2026, subsea activities on the east-north flank wells continued under the Shah Deniz 2 project, culminating in the startup of the fourth well on this flank in September. While activities for Shah Deniz 2 remained the primary scope of work for the subsea construction vessel Khankendi, during the first nine months of the year the vessel was also deployed for subsea intervention operations on multiple wells at the Deepwater Gunashli area of the ACG field to support reservoir pressure management and early identification of production enhancement opportunities. During this period, the diving support vessel Tofiq Ismayilov assisted with general inspection, maintenance, and intervention tasks across all operational subsea production facilities at Shah Deniz 2 and ACG. This initiative formed part of an integrated schedule to optimize vessel and rig usage while accelerating well tie-in timelines.
Throughout Q3, progress on the $2.9 billion Shah Deniz Compression (SDC) project advanced safely and ahead of schedule, continuing to maintain strong health and safety metrics. By the end of the quarter, more than 4 million work-hours had been completed without a lost-time injury (LTI).
A major project milestone was achieved in October with the completion of offshore pin-piling operations, marking the start of offshore construction. Under these operations, four tubular pin piles that will form the foundation of the SDC jacket structure were safely transported offshore and installed using the Khankendi subsea construction vessel. A specially designed 188-tonne subsea template was utilized during installation to ensure pile stability and verticality. The campaign also marked the first deployment of pile plug technology in bp’s Caspian operations.
Concurrently, fabrication of the SDC platform topsides modules and jacket structure progressed according to schedule at the Bayil fabrication yard and the Heydar Aliyev Baku Deepwater Jackets Factory, respectively, achieving substantial progress on primary steel framing and structural assembly.
Offshore and subsea engineering activities proceeded on schedule, with major equipment package procurements continuing in alignment with construction and installation timelines.
The primary objective of the $2.9 billion SDC project is to unlock low-pressure gas reserves in the field to sustain production levels and maximize overall gas recovery factors. The project is expected to enable the recovery and export of approximately 50 billion cubic meters of additional gas and nearly 25 million barrels of additional condensate.
The project scope encompasses the construction of a new compression facility—an electric-powered, normally unattended installation platform (eNUI). It also includes related facilities within the Shah Deniz contract area and modifications to existing infrastructure on the Shah Deniz Alpha (SDA) and Shah Deniz Bravo (SDB) platforms as well as at the Sangachal Terminal. Following construction completion in 2029, the SDC platform is scheduled to be ready to receive gas for compression from SDA in 2029 and from SDB in 2030.
During Q3 2026, drilling operations on well SDA12 at the Shah Deniz Alpha platform were completed.
The Istiglal and Heydar Aliyev semi-submersible drilling rigs continued well operations under the Shah Deniz 2 scope. During the quarter, the Istiglal rig finished completion activities on well SDH04 on the east-north flank and is currently carrying out completion work on well SDH05 on the same flank. Meanwhile, the Heydar Aliyev rig completed planned maintenance and commenced drilling on well SDD06 on the western flank.
In total, 24 wells have been drilled under Shah Deniz 2, including five wells on the northern flank, five on the western flank, four on the east-south flank, five on the west-south flank, and five on the east-north flank.
