Details added (first version posted on 12:44)
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 4
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
Iran is interested in purchasing a stake in the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), the President of Azerbaijan's State Oil Company (SOCAR) Rovnag Abdullayev told reporters Apr. 4.
He said SOCAR stands ready to consider the offers for the sale of a part of its share in TANAP.
"TANAP is so profitable that the other options of transferring the share can't be a topic of discussion. Here one can talk only about its sale," said Abdullayev. "If we get a good advantageous offer, we are ready to discuss this issue."
He added that there are already such proposals.
"After the decision to lift sanctions from Iran, TANAP's relevance has grown even more. Iran will increase gas production, and, except for TANAP, there is no other alternative for bringing Iran's gas to world markets," SOCAR president said.
TANAP envisages the transportation of gas of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field from the Georgian-Turkish border to the western borders of Turkey.
The project for the development of the Shah Deniz gas and condensate field already involves the Iranian company NICO, which hold a 10-percent stake.
The share distribution among the Shah Deniz participants is as follows: BP (the operator, with 28.8 percent), AzSD (10 percent), SGC Upstream (6.7 percent), Statoil (15.5 percent), Lukoil (10 percent), NICO (10 percent), and TPAO (19 percent).
TANAP's initial capacity is expected to reach 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Around six billion cubic meters of this gas will be delivered to Turkey and the rest of the volume to Europe.
Turkey will obtain gas in 2018, and after the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) is constructed the gas will be delivered to Europe in early 2020.
BP and the TANAP consortium signed March 13 a share holder agreement, according to which BP will become one of the shareholders of TANAP.
The agreement is one of the main documents for BP's ownership of a stake in the TANAP project. Following the completion of a legal implementation procedure, TANAP's shareholders list will be as follows: SOCAR - 58 percent, Botas - 30 percent and BP - 12 percent.
The project's cost is estimated at $10 to $11 billion.
Edited by SI
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