Baku, Azerbaijan, June 20
By Maksim Tsurkov – Trend:
The projects of the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) for the delivery of Azerbaijani gas to European countries are of particular importance for Europe's energy security, Head of Energy Security Section in the Emerging Security Challenges Division of NATO Michael Ruhle said in an interview with Anadolu news agency.
Ruhle said that the issue of implementation of the projects will be discussed at the Warsaw NATO Summit July 7-8.
“The TANAP and the TAP pipelines are of particular importance in order to reduce Europe's dependence on Russian gas,” Ruhle said. “In this issue, a big part of the responsibility lies on Turkey as well.”
TANAP and TAP pipelines are an integral part of the Southern Gas Corridor project to deliver gas as part of the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field to Europe. Other sources can connect to this project at a later stage.
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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