Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.4
By Anakhanum Hidayatova- Trend:
The Turkish Stream project is at a very early stage and it will be interesting to see how the project will evolve, both in terms of investments and market potential, Italian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Giampaolo Cutillo told Trend Feb. 4.
"Whatever its outcome is, I do not see, however, how it could impact TANAP, which, as a part of the Southern corridor, is at an advanced stage, has already found its investors, the buyers of its gas, as well as its contractors who are already at work to build it," he said.
"The SCP-TANAP-TAP implies, furthermore, a complex binding legal framework for all parties concerned, both private companies and governments, and we have to start to think of it more as a reality than as an on-paper project," the ambassador said.
During the talks in Turkey on December 1, 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin talked about ceasing the South Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Bulgaria. A new project was immediately initiated in the same volume of 63 billion cubic meters, designed for Turkey and consumers of the EU countries capable to take the required volumes from the trading hub on the border between Turkey and the EU (Greece).
Earlier, Gazprom defined the route of the Turkish stream pipeline along the bottom of the Black Sea. The capacity of four lines of the pipeline will be 63 billion cubic meters of gas annually.
Plans are for the first branch of the "Turkish Stream" with a pumping capacity of 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas per year to stretch to the territory of Turkey by December 2016.
The gas pipeline will pass 660 kilometers in the old corridor of South Stream and 250 kilometers in the new corridor in the direction of the European part of Turkey.
The Southern Gas Corridor will allow Europe to diversify its hydrocarbon supply sources and strengthen energy security and also will allow Azerbaijan to obtain a new market in Europe.
A final investment decision was made on December 17, 2013 on the Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz offshore gas and condensate field's development. The gas produced at this field will first go to the European market (10 billion cubic meters).
The contract for development of the Shah Deniz offshore field was signed on June 4, 1996. It has proven reserve of 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.
The share distribution among the agreement parties is as follows: BP (operator) - 28.8 percent, Statoil - 15.5 percent, NICO - 10 percent, Total - 10 percent, Lukoil - 10 percent, TPAO - nine percent, and SOCAR - 16.7 percent.
Edited by CN