ECONOMY
SOCAR President: Implementation of TANAP project within schedule
Baku, December 4 (AZERTAC). “The works related to TANAP project are conducted in accordance with the plan”, President of SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev said.
SOCAR President said that TANAP Company had already been established and employees were recruited. At the present moment the territories that the pipeline will pass through are being determined and a report on ecological impact of the project is being prepared.
“Azerbaijan’s partners in Shah Deniz-2 project BP, Statoil and Total are interested in TANAP project”, he added.
Note that, The Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) is a proposed natural gas pipeline from Azerbaijan through Turkey to Europe. If constructed, it would transport gas from the second stage of the Shah Deniz gas field.
The project was announced on 17 November 2011 at the Third Black Sea Energy and Economic Forum in Istanbul. On 26 December 2011, Turkey and Azerbaijan signed a memorandum of understanding establishing a consortium to build and operate the pipeline.
In spring 2012, the process of conducting the technical-economic feasibility study was launched. Orders for pipes and construction equipment are expected to be made by autumn 2012. On 26 June 2012, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signed a binding intergovernmental agreement on the pipeline.
The pipeline is expected to cost US$7 billion. The construction is planned to start in 2014 and to be completed by 2018.
The planned capacity of the pipeline would be 16 billion cubic metres (570 billion cubic feet) of natural gas per year at initial stage and would be increased later up to 23 billion cubic metres (810 billion cubic feet) by 2023, 31 billion cubic metres (1.1 trillion cubic feet) by 2026, and at the final stage 60 billion cubic metres (2.1 trillion cubic feet) to be able to transport additional gas supplies from Azerbaijan and, if the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline, from Turkmenistan. Its capacity would be increased by adding parallel loops and compressor stations according to the increase of available supplies.
The pipeline is expected to cost US$7 billion. The construction is planned to start in 2014 and to be completed by 2018.