Sangachal Terminal

The Sangachal Terminal is an industrial complex consisting of a natural gas processing plant and oil production plant, located on the coast of the Caspian Sea 45 km south of Baku, Azerbaijan.

History
Construction of the terminal began in 1996 with the Early Oil Project, which foresaw the construction of pipelines to Supsa and Novorossiysk. Oil was first exported in October 1997. The terminal has since been expanded to include the ACG Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3 Oil Trains, BTC's main pumping station and the Shah Deniz gas plant. Facilities at the oil production plant include separators, coalescers, three new crude oil storage tanks, Export Pumps, gas turbine power generators and a central control room.

Sangachal Terminal Expansion Program
The Sangachal Terminal Expansion Program (STEP) was started in November 2001. The construction included 15,000 cubic metre of concrete, 1,600 units of steel structures, 25000 m of pipe, 450000 m of cables. Apart from technological works, civil construction included living accommodations for 550 people, cafeteria, movie theater, soccer field, etc. US$1.2-2 billion was spent for sub-projects realized within the STEP project. The terminal expansion contract was awarded to Tekfen-Azfen joint venture which employed nearly 4,000 employees for the project, 75% of which were Azerbaijani citizens. Due to finalization of the main part of the project, this number was reduced to 1,720 employees.

Technical features
Sangachal Terminal has a processing capacity of 1.2 Moilbbl/d and 1.25 Gcuft of gas per day (bcfd). The three new crude oil storage tanks added during the STEP have a capacity of 880 koilbbl each. The overall storage capacity at the terminal is 3 Moilbbl. As of November 2009, the terminal exports 941.4 koilbbl/d.

The terminal is operated by a BP led consortium and is one of the largest oil and gas facilities in the world. Other partners are from AIOC, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, Shah Deniz and South Caucasus Pipeline projects. The terminal receives oil from the Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field and natural gas from the Shah Deniz gas field.

The oil is exported via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline to Turkey's Mediterranean coast and via the Baku-Supsa Pipeline and the Baku-Novorossiysk Pipeline to the Black Sea coast. Sangachal Terminal was mentioned in the United States diplomatic cables leak as one of US "critical foreign dependencies".