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Two alternative ways of piping gas from the giant Shah Deniz field in Azerbaijan will be considered now that a series of accords have been agreed between Turkey and the southern Caucasian nation setting out how natural gas will be transported from the Caspian Sea to Europe for the first time, BP PLC (BP.LN) said Monday.

U.K. energy giant BP leads the consortium currently developing the field offshore Azerbaijan, which hopes to eventually export 10 billion cubic meters per year of gas across Turkey to Europe.

"The agreements allow two alternative pipelines to be considered in parallel," said BP in a statement. "One consists of an upgrade of the existing Turkish Petroleum Pipeline Corp., or BOTAS, pipeline network, while the other would entail construction of an entirely new standalone pipeline across Turkey," said BP.

The move comes after the boards of BP, the Azerbaijan State Oil Company Socar and BOTAS formally ratified the series of 14 agreements reached by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev last month that lays out how the Shah Deniz field will continue to be developed.

BP operates the Shah Deniz field with Statoil, Azerbaijan's Socar, Russia's OAO Lukoil Holdings (LKOH.RS), France's Total SA (TOT), National Iranian Oil Co. and Turkey's TPAO as partners.

According to BP, the standalone pipeline would be built by a new consortium, including both Turkish and gas producer companies.

-By Alexis Flynn, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 207842 9471, alexis.flynn@dowjones.com