Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 7
By Elena Kosolapova - Trend:
Turkish Stream gas pipeline project is unlikely to join TANAP gas project, says Andreas Marazis, Project Manager and Researcher in European Neighborhood Council think tank based in Brussels.
“With [Azerbaijani state oil company] SOCAR being a major stakeholder in TANAP, notably owing 58 percent, it is highly unlikely to approve such a proposal which will undermine its own future prospects to pump more gas to Europe after fully developing the second and third phase of its Shah Deniz gas field,” Marazis told Trend by email.
At the same time Brussels will not be enthusiastic about such a possibility given its Energy Security Strategy which prioritizes diversification of supplier countries and routes, the expert noted.
Earlier, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu proposed to connect the Russia-developed Turkish Stream pipeline which envisages Russian gas supplies to Turkey and further to Europe bypassing Ukraine to the TANAP pipeline, which will pump gas from Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas field to Turkey and to Europe. Cavusoglu said Ankara will buy only 16 billion cubic meters of Russian gas per year via the Turkish Stream. The remaining volume of Russian gas can be exported through Turkey via TANAP by connecting it to the Turkish Stream, he said.
Speaking about the Turkish Stream project, Marazis noted that Turkey will be able to consume gas from just one string of this pipeline, which begs the question of the gas from the second string of the pipeline.
“The supplier has not secured a consuming market yet makes the project less important compared to Nord Stream II and the Russian-Chinese project “Power of Siberia”,” he said.
Earlier, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that Russia and Turkey will sign an intergovernmental agreement on "Turkish Stream" in one-two months to ensure construction of the first string of the pipeline by the end of 2019 for gas supplies to Turkey.
Turkish Stream project, which involves the construction of a gas pipeline from Russia to Turkey through the Black Sea, was frozen after the relations between Moscow and Ankara deteriorated in November 2015. In Aug. 2016 the Presidents of two countries Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to resume the implementation of the Turkish Stream project.