Azernews.Az

By Abdul Kerimkhanov

Everything is ready for the transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe via the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Donmez has told the Turkish media.

TANAP is a major part of the Southern Gas Corridor, which along with the South Caucasus Pipeline and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, will connect the giant Shah Deniz gas field in Azerbaijan to Europe

Donmez stressed that the project will be fully completed with the opening of the second section (Phase 1) of TANAP.

He noted the subsequent stages for the transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe through this system depend on the progress in the implementation of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project.

The opening ceremony of the Phase 1 of the TANAP will be held in Ipsala, Turkey’s Edirne province on November 30, 2019 near the Greek border where TANAP is connected to the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), through which natural gas from Azerbaijan will be delivered to European countries.

On May 29, Baku hosted the launching ceremony of the first phase of the Southern Gas Corridor project, and on June 12, the opening ceremony of TANAP pipeline was held in the Turkish province of Eskisehir with the participation of the presidents of Azerbaijan - Ilham Aliyev, Turkey - Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ukraine - Petro Poroshenko and Serbia - Alexander Vucic.

By the end of June 2020, the pipeline is expected to deliver 6 bcm of gas to Turkey. When TAP is fully ready to operate, the entire pipeline project will have the capacity to deliver 16 bcm of gas.

TANAP shareholders are Southern Gas Corridor CJSC (51 percent), STEAŞ (7 percent), BOTAŞ (30 percent), BP (12 percent).

TANAP runs from the Turkish border with Georgia, beginning in the Turkish village of Turkgozu, and through 20 provinces until it ends at the Greek border in the İpsala district of Edirne province. From this point, TANAP is connected to the TAP to convey natural gas to European countries.

TAP, along with TANAP, is a part of Southern Gas Corridor project. The project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijani Shah Deniz-2 gas field to Greece and southern Italy across the Adriatic Sea through Greece and Albania and involves designing, construction and operation of the natural gas pipeline.

Albania, Italy and Greece signed the Intergovernmental Agreement on the TAP project in February 2013. The cost of the project is 4.5 billion euros.

TAP will transverse Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea to reach Italy. Azerbaijani gas is expected to reach European markets by 2020.

The TAP project is one of the strategic objectives of the EU in the energy security and diversification of energy sources, chosen as the shortest and direct way to export natural gas from Azerbaijan to the European markets.

Construction of nearly 74.6 percent of the 878 km pipeline has been completed, of which 550 kilometers will pass through the northern part of Greece, 215 kilometers - Albania, 105 kilometers - the Adriatic Sea and 8 kilometers - Italy. The TAP pipeline is expected to be commissioned in 2020. The initial capacity of TAP will be 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year with the possibility of doubling it.

TAP shareholders include BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Snam S.p.A. (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagas (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).

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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94

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