Price, transit key to Azerbaijan gas growth - Statoil

* Ability to raise output hangs on price, transit agreements

* Shah Deniz pipeline will help it become major producer

* Deal with Turkey crucial

BAKU, June 3 - Azerbaijan could export over 30 billion cubic metres of gas within 15 years, nearly a third more than it produced in 2008, as long as it secures agreements on price and transit, StatoilHydro country head said on Wednesday.

Kristian Hausken, president of StatoilHydro in Azerbaijan said commercial negotiations would determine the start date for the second phase of the multi-billion dollar Shah Deniz project in the Caspian Sea, a scheme that could lessen European dependence on Russian gas.

"It's 2014, but it is floating on the back of the commercial negotiations," Hausken told reporters, when asked when the project would start production.

Ex-Soviet Azerbaijan has quadrupled natural gas production in the last decade and is a potential supplier to the Western-backed Nabucco pipeline.

The project would give more choice to European consumers, who depend on Russia for a quarter of their gas, but the pipeline does not yet have enough gas to fill it.

Shah Deniz, in which StatoilHydro and BP each own 25.5 percent, could produce about 16 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas annually when its second phase starts.

When combined with gas from the Azeri-Chirag-Gyuneshli (ACG) deposit and other satellite projects, Azerbaijan could within 10 to 15 years export over 30 billion bcm annually, Hausken said.

"This will be the foundation of a major gas value chain from the Caspian to Europe," he said. "Once Shah Deniz has shown the way, with the next find -- be it in Turkmenistan or Azerbaijan -- things will be easier."

But the project's partners, which also include Azeri state oil firm Socar, have yet to agree on the price of gas and the conditions for transit through Turkey and other countries to their destination markets.

"There are issues that need to be discussed," Hausken said. "Turkey wants to have more gas. We would also need to discuss bilateral transit issues. Nabucco needs to get things in place."

An agreement on transit of Azeri gas through Turkey would be "crucial" to making progress, he said. Talks between the two countries have been delayed by demands from Ankara for a share of the gas that will pass through Turkish territory.

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Russia's LUKOIL, France's Total and Iranian and Turkish state firms are also partners in Shah Deniz.

Hausken said the partners had not yet decided where to sell their gas. He declined to comment on whether the companies were in talks with Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom.

"We are very commercial in this respect and this is the way we should be," he said. "We have a risk picture that could go either way, so we are looking for the offers in the marketplace that can give both long-term viability and sustainability and a price which is a market price."

Hausken said it was important that a significant portion of the gas reached the European Union, where the market is transparent and a benchmark price can be identified.

"Contracts must be able to meet the scrutiny of time," he said. "In 10 to 15 years, both partners should look each other in the eye and know, all things considered, that the risks and rewards are balanced."