Baku, Azerbaijan, June 20
By Rufiz Hafizoglu – Trend:
Turkey must reduce its energy dependence on Russia thanks to the gas supplies from alternative resources, said Kenan Yavuz, the former head of SOCAR Turkey Energy and the chairman of the Caspian Strategy Institute (HASEN).
The Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), via which more than six billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas will be supplied to Turkey, can partially contribute to this, said Yavuz June 20 in his interview with TRT Haber news channel.
He noted TANAP’s importance for Turkey and the whole region, and added that Israeli gas would also be useful for Turkey.
Turkey imported 39.7 billion cubic meters of gas via pipelines in 2015, according to BP. About 5.3 billion cubic meters of the total volume were imported from Azerbaijan, 26.6 billion cubic meters – from Russia, 7.8 billion cubic meters – from Iran.
Turkey imported 7.5 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in 2015, according to estimates. The main part of this volume accounted for Algeria, which exported 3.8 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey. The country imported 1.7 billion cubic meters of LNG from Qatar, and 1.5 billion cubic meters – from Nigeria.
TANAP project envisages transporting gas from Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field from the Georgian-Turkish border to the western border of Turkey. The gas will reach Turkey in 2018, and after the completion of the TAP construction, the gas will reach Europe around early 2020. The initial capacity of TAP will be 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year, which can be expanded to 20 billion cubic meters.
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