Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.5
By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:
The investment priorities of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Azerbaijan are sustainable infrastructure, regional connectivity, and private capital mobilization, the bank told Trend.
As for now, the bank said TANAP is the only project it is financing in the country.
“AIIB didn’t allocate any fund to Azerbaijan in 2018. The Bank’s investment priorities are: sustainable infrastructure, regional connectivity, and private capital mobilization,” said AIIB.
Earlier, the AIIB told Trend that it expects to strengthen cooperation with Azerbaijan.
"At AIIB, we are open to consider both sovereign backed and non-sovereign backed projects. As such, we can and will maintain dialog with both the government of Azerbaijan and the investors in its private sector," the bank said.
AIIB was founded in June 2015. Azerbaijan is one of the founding members of the Beijing-based bank.
In December 2016, the Board of Directors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank approved a loan of $600 million for the construction of TANAP.
A ceremony to launch TANAP took place June 12 in the Turkish city of Eskisehir.
TANAP, together with Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor, which provides for the transportation of gas from the Azerbaijani field Shah Deniz to Europe.
The initial capacity of TANAP is expected to be 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year. About six billion cubic meters will be supplied to Turkey, and the rest to Europe. After completion of the TAP, the gas will reach Europe in early 2020.
The share distribution in TANAP is as follows: Southern Gas Corridor CJSC - 51 percent, SOCAR Turkey Enerji - 7 percent, Botas - 30 percent, and BP - 12 percent.
The launching ceremony of the first stage of the Southern Gas Corridor project was held in Baku on May 29.
The gas from the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field has already gone through the first segment of the Southern Gas Corridor - from the Sangachal terminal to the expanded South Caucasus Pipeline.
The Southern Gas Corridor, which costs more than $40 billion, is one of the priority projects for the EU and provides for the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe.
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