BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 20
By Rufiz Hafizoglu – Trend:
All Azerbaijani energy projects are significant projects of the century, Chief Coordinator of the Parliamentary Union of the Turkic World, ex-ambassador of Turkey to Azerbaijan Hulusi Kilic said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
The ex-ambassador said that the fraternal country has launched the implementation of a number of major projects by the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline through Turkey at the initiative of Azerbaijani national leader Heydar Aliyev.
"These are the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which is called the Silk Road of the railway, and the fourth major project - the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline - TANAP," Kilic said.
The diplomat emphasized that TANAP is a truly ambitious project and if Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan join it, it will become a project of the entire Turkic world.
The opening ceremony of the TANAP-Europe connection was held on Nov. 30, 2019 in Ipsala, Edirne province of Turkey.
TANAP, through which the natural gas produced in the Shah Deniz Stage II field will be transported to Turkey and from this country to Europe, is an integral part of the Southern Gas Corridor project.
TANAP is connected to the South Caucasus Pipeline on the Turkish-Georgian border and to the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) on the border with Greece.
The initial capacity of TANAP, stretching 1,810 kilometers, is 16 billion cubic meters of gas. There is an opportunity to increase this figure up to 31 billion cubic meters in the future.
Around six billion cubic meters of this gas will be supplied to Turkey while the remaining volume - to Europe. After the completion of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) construction, gas will be supplied to Europe in early 2020.
The share distribution of TANAP shareholders is as follows: Southern Gas Corridor CJSC - 58 percent, Botas - 30 percent, BP - 12 percent.
Opening ceremony of TANAP's Phase 0 took place on June 12, 2018, in the Turkish province of Eskisehir, and commercial gas deliveries to Turkey began in late June 2018.
The volume of gas transportation to Turkey via TANAP has reached 3.08 billion cubic meters (bcm) from June 30, 2018 through late October 2019.
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