Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.30
By Emil Ismayilov - Trend:
It is planned to start the construction of the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) in March-April 2015, a senior official of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) told Trend on Oct.30.
"The groundbreaking laying of TANAP will take place in late March or in April of 2015, according to the preliminary data," the company representative said.
The TANAP project envisages gas transportation from the Shah Deniz field to Europe via Turkey.
The first gas will be delivered to Turkey in 2018 and to Europe in 2019 via TANAP. Gas supply to Europe will be possible after the construction of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).
Around six billion cubic meters of the total volume of gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of development of the Shah Deniz field, will be delivered to Turkey and 10 billion cubic meters to Europe per year. In future the pipeline may be expanded up to 31 billion cubic meters a year.
The initial capacity of TANAP is expected to reach 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
TANAP pipeline is planned to be commissioned in 2018. The project cost is estimated at $10-11 billion.
Contracts for the supply of pipes for the construction of TANAP were signed in Turkey's Ankara city on Oct.14.
Under the project for construction of the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP), contracts were signed with six Turkish and one Chinese company.
Turkey's Mannesmann-Noksel-Erciyas and Umran-Emek consortiums, Toscelik Profil ve Sac Endustrisi company, as well as a Chinese contractor Baosteel Europe won the tender for the supply of pipes for the TANAP project.
Currently, SOCAR legally holds 70 percent of share in the TANAP project, while Turkey's Botas company owns 30 percent share. The procedure of legal execution of the transaction on purchasing 12 percent of SOCAR's share in the TANAP project by BP will be completed by late 2014.
Subsequently, the shareholders of the TANAP will be as follows: SOCAR - 58 percent, Botas - 30 percent and BP - 12 percent.
Edited by SI