Baku, Azerbaijan, May 26
By Aygun Badalova - Trend:
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has started talks with Azerbaijan and Turkey on its possible financing of the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP), Reuters reported with the reference to Svitlana Pyrkalo, the EBRD's principal adviser.
"We have started talks with the Azerbaijani government on the issue of financing, but it's too early to talk about figures," Pyrkalo said.
She said that issue was a key topic in talks between Azerbaijani officials and EBRD President Suma Chakrabarti in Baku.
TANAP project envisages transportation of gas of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field from Georgian-Turkish border to the western borders of Turkey.
Turkey will get gas in 2018 and after completing the construction of Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), it will be delivered to Europe in early 2020. The project's total cost is estimated at $9.8 billion. Currently, the shareholders of TANAP are: SOCAR - 58 percent, Botas - 30 percent and BP - 12 percent.
Earlier EBRD managing director of energy Riccardo Puliti said in an interview to Reuters that bank is considering financing of up to 1.5 billion euros for TAP.
"We are considering up to 500 million euros of our own money for TAP plus we will try to arrange with other banks up to 1 billion euros in a syndicated loan," Puliti said.