ECONOMY
SOCAR chief says neither Turkey nor Azerbaijan expressed desire to change size of their share in TANAP
Baku, April 5 (AZERTAC). President of Azerbaijan`s state oil firm, SOCAR, Rovnag Abdullayev has said neither Turkey nor Azerbaijan have raised the issue of changing their shares in Trans Anadolu Pipeline project (TANAP).
Abdullayev commented on recent speculations in Turkish media alleging that there would be some change in the shares.
“Turkey and Azerbaijan signed a memorandum on the size of their shares in TANAP, and according to the deal Azerbaijan owns 80% of the shares, while Turkey`s stake constitutes 20%,” Abdullayev told journalists.
“We invited foreign companies to participate in the project, and BP, Statoil and Total and even some states have already expressed their interest,” said SOCAR`s president.
Abdullayev noted the size of foreign partners` shares would be determined after Azerbaijan and Turkey sign an intergovernmental agreement on the construction of the pipeline.
He added that no minimum limit was considered for Azerbaijan: “Our main purpose is to keep operatorship and control in the pipeline.”
On December 26, 2011 Azerbaijani and Turkish Ministries of Energy signed the memorandum on TANAP pipeline. According to the document, SOCAR gets 80% share in the consortium and becomes its operator. The remaining 20% will be divided between Turkish state-run companies Botas and TPAO. The memorandum says that the consortium is open for the third parties, but in this case SOCAR will have to offer part of its share.