Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec.14 /Trend's R. Hafizoglu/
According to Undersecretary of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources Metin Kilci, the TANAP project is being implemented much faster that Nabucco, Turkish online newspaper Dünya Gazetesi wrote on Friday.
Kilci said that Ankara is an important partner in Nabucco, and Turkey will fulfill its commitment to the project.
Nabucco-West envisages the construction of 1,300 km of pipeline (Bulgaria: 412 km, Romania 469 km, Hungary 384 km, Austria 47 km). from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to the Austrian Baumgarten.
The shareholders are the Austrian OMV, Hungarian FGSZ, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and German RWE.
At present, a 20% share in TANAP belongs to Turkish BOTAS and TPAO, 80 per cent - the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR). SOCAR intends to retain 51 percent of the equity in the project. Turkey will keep 20 percent of the equity.
The TANAP project envisages the construction of the pipeline from the eastern border of Turkey to the country's western border to supply gas from Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas field to Europe through Turkey. The initial capacity of the pipeline is expected to reach 16 billion cubic meters a year. About six billion cubic meters will be delivered to Turkey, and the rest - to Europe.