BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 23. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has marked as closed the financing facilities totaling $475 million for the Shah Deniz Stage II Gas Field Expansion Project in Azerbaijan, according to the bank’s project information.
The financing package comprised a $250 million loan from ADB’s ordinary capital resources and a $225 million B-loan. The borrower/company listed for the financing is Lukoil Overseas Shah Deniz. Both facilities are currently shown as "Closed" in ADB’s project database. The financing was approved in August 2015.
The phase 2 development of Shah Deniz was sanctioned in 2013 and has proved to be one of the largest and most complex gas projects in the world. It represents the first subsea development in the Caspian Sea and the largest subsea infrastructure operated by bp worldwide. It is also a gateway to the Southern Gas Corridor that delivers natural gas from the Caspian Sea directly to European markets.
Offshore, the Shah Deniz 2 project includes 26 subsea wells, 500km of subsea pipelines and flowlines and a new bridge-linked double platform. Gas is transported onshore through an 85 km pipeline to the Sangachal terminal, which underwent a major expansion to accommodate the new increased gas output. The project also expanded SCP - 428km of new pipeline in Azerbaijan and 59km in Georgia, including three new compression facilities, 1 in Azerbaijan at the Sangachal terminal and 2 in Georgia, pigging and block valve stations pushing the gas to TANAP and TAP pipelines across its 3,500 km long journey to Europe.
bp data for H1 2026 shows that in total, 24 wells have been drilled for Shah Deniz 2 to date.
"These include five wells on the North flank, five wells on the West flank, four wells on the East South flank, five wells on the West South flank and five wells on the East North flank," said the company.
bp notes that during the first half of 2026, the Shah Deniz Alpha platform completed additional perforation activities on the SDA09, SDA07 and SDA04 wells, and commenced drilling the SDA12 well.
"The Shah Deniz 2 project progressed with the wells programme activities using the Istiglal and Heydar Aliyev rigs. During the first half of 2026, the Istiglal rig completed the SDD05 well on the West flank, carried out intervention activities on the SDF02 well on the West South flank, and is currently undertaking completion activities on the SDH04 well on the East North flank. The Heydar Aliyev rig completed the drilling of the SDH05 well on the East North flank and started rig maintenance activities in preparation for drilling the SDD06 well on the West flank," the report reads.
During the first six months, the Shah Deniz field continued to provide gas to markets in Azerbaijan (to SOCAR), Georgia (to GOGC), Türkiye (to BOTAS), BTC in multiple locations and to buyers in Europe.
In the first half of 2026, the field produced around 14 billion standard cubic metres of gas and about 2 million tonnes (around 15 million barrels) of condensate in total from the Shah Deniz Alpha and Shah Deniz Bravo platforms.
Shah Deniz participating interests are: bp (operator – 29.99%), LUKOIL (19.99%), TPAO (19.00%), SGC (16.02%), NICO (10.00%) and MVM (5.00%).
