Azerbaijan, Baku, June 27 / Trend A.Badalova/
Nabucco consortium welcomes an agreement on Trans Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) signed between Azerbaijan and Turkey.
"Nabucco welcomes projects that secure upstream investments and respective pipeline connections to Nabucco," Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH official representative told Trend on Wednesday.
This week Azerbaijan and Turkey signed an intergovernmental agreement on TANAP. The document was signed by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The agreement was also signed by Azerbaijani Minister of Industry and Energy Natig Aliyev and Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz.
TANAP project envisages construction of the pipeline from the eastern border of Turkey to the country's western border to supply gas from Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas field to Europe through Turkey. BOTAS has a 20-percent stake in TANAP, while the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) holds 80 percent in the project.
The initial capacity of the pipeline will be 16 billion cubic meters. Some 6 billion cubic meters of the volume will be supplied to Turkey, while the rest will be transported to Europe.
Nabucco consortium expects Nabucco West to be selected by the Shah Deniz consortium as preferred pipeline to transport gas to the Europeam markets.
"We are confident that Nabucco West will be the preferred pipeline for producers to Europe and that consequently TANAP will be connected to Nabucco West," the official said.
Nabucco West is a short-cut version of Nabucco project, which envisages construction of the pipeline from Turkish-Bulgarian border to Austria. Gas to be produced within the second phase of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas field development is considered as the main source for the project. The current shareholders of Nabucco project are Bulgarian Energy Holding, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas, Austrian OMV, German RWE and Hungary's FGSZ.
The choice between the projects aimed at transporting gas to the Central European direction (Nabucco base case, Nabucco West and SEEP) will be made in the coming days. The final decision on a pipeline route to export Azerbaijani gas to the European markets is expected to be made by Shah Deniz Consortium in 2013.