Baku, Azerbaijan, July 10
By Rufiz Hafizoglu – Trend:
Turkey is becoming an important energy hub of the region thanks to such important projects as the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline projects, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
He made the remarks at the opening of the 22nd World Petroleum Congress in Istanbul July 10.
“To become a strong country, it is necessary to have considerable volumes of energy resources or participate in energy routes,” Erdogan noted.
Unfortunately, energy resources are now becoming the cause of clashes, he said, adding that Turkey has always advocated that they should be the subject of a dialogue.
Erdogan further expressed support for the implementation of other energy projects and pointed out the significance of Turkish Stream.
TANAP project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field to the western borders of Turkey. 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.
The length of TANAP is 1,850 kilometers with an initial capacity of 16 billion cubic meters of gas. Around six billion cubic meters of this gas is meant to be delivered to Turkey, with the remaining volume to be supplied to Europe.
TANAP shareholders are Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR (58 percent), BOTAS (30 percent) and BP (12 percent).
Russia and Turkey signed an intergovernmental agreement on the implementation of the Turkish Stream project in October 2016. The agreement envisages construction of two branches of the main gas pipeline through the Black Sea, the capacity of each branch being 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas. One branch is meant to supply gas directly to the Turkish market and the other for the supply of gas by transit through Turkey to Europe.
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