BAKU GIVES GREEN LIGHT TO TANAP PIPELINE DEAL
Alexandr Mazurkevich
RIA Novosti
BAKU, January 18 (RIA Novosti) - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
officially approved on Friday a project to build the Trans-Anatolian
(TANAP) gas pipeline to Europe via Turkey, the president's official
website reported.
Turkey and Azerbaijan signed an intergovernmental agreement on the
issue in June 2012.
TANAP is projected to deliver natural gas, mostly from Azerbaijan's
Shah Deniz gas field, via Turkey to gas transport systems in Bulgaria
or Greece. Turkey and Azerbaijan signed a memorandum on December 26,
2011, establishing a consortium to build and operate the pipeline.
The planned annual minimum capacity of the pipeline, to be built by
late 2017, will be 16 billion cubic meters. Six billion cubic meters
will be bought by Turkey and the rest will go to Europe. The project's
costs have previously been estimated at $7 billion.
The project's major shareholders are the State Oil Company of
Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) with an 80 percent stake and Turkey's
state-owned crude oil and natural gas pipelines and trading company
BOTAS with 20 percent.
SOCAR, which has the right to sell a part of its shares to minority
partners, has invited BP, Statoil and Total S.A. to become minority
shareholders in this project. BP and Statoil signaled their readiness
to buy 12 percent each, while Total S.A. said it might buy a 5
percent stake.
Alexandr Mazurkevich
RIA Novosti
BAKU, January 18 (RIA Novosti) - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
officially approved on Friday a project to build the Trans-Anatolian
(TANAP) gas pipeline to Europe via Turkey, the president's official
website reported.
Turkey and Azerbaijan signed an intergovernmental agreement on the
issue in June 2012.
TANAP is projected to deliver natural gas, mostly from Azerbaijan's
Shah Deniz gas field, via Turkey to gas transport systems in Bulgaria
or Greece. Turkey and Azerbaijan signed a memorandum on December 26,
2011, establishing a consortium to build and operate the pipeline.
The planned annual minimum capacity of the pipeline, to be built by
late 2017, will be 16 billion cubic meters. Six billion cubic meters
will be bought by Turkey and the rest will go to Europe. The project's
costs have previously been estimated at $7 billion.
The project's major shareholders are the State Oil Company of
Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) with an 80 percent stake and Turkey's
state-owned crude oil and natural gas pipelines and trading company
BOTAS with 20 percent.
SOCAR, which has the right to sell a part of its shares to minority
partners, has invited BP, Statoil and Total S.A. to become minority
shareholders in this project. BP and Statoil signaled their readiness
to buy 12 percent each, while Total S.A. said it might buy a 5
percent stake.