Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 8
By Orkhan Quluzade – Trend:
The World Bank (WB) and Turkey’s Botas Petroleum Pipeline Corporation will sign a loan agreement for financing of the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project, the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources said in a message on its website Feb. 8.
The signing ceremony will take place today, on Feb. 8, at 14:00 (GMT +3 hours), according to the message.
Berat Albayrak, Turkish minister of energy and natural resources, will also take part in the signing ceremony.
On Jan. 16, the WB and Azerbaijan signed a loan agreement and a guarantee agreement on the TANAP project.
The loan agreement was signed by Mercy Tembon, the WB regional director for the South Caucasus, and Afgan Isayev, head of the Southern Gas Corridor CJSC. The guarantee agreement was signed by the Azerbaijani Finance Minister Samir Sharifov and Mercy Tembon.
The WB allocated $400 million to Azerbaijan for the implementation of the project. The loan repayment period is 30 years and a grace period is five years.
The cost of the TANAP project is $8.5 billion.
TANAP project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz field to the western borders of Turkey. The length of TANAP is 1,800 kilometers with the initial capacity of 16 billion cubic meters. Around six billion cubic meters of the gas will be delivered to Turkey and the remaining volume will be supplied to Europe.
The gas will be delivered to Turkey in 2018 and after completion of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline’s construction the gas will be delivered to Europe in early 2020.
TANAP shareholders are Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR (58 percent), BOTAS (30 percent) and BP (12 percent).
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