BP: Cost of TANAP-TAP gas pipeline chain to total $15 billion

As has been already reported, two partners of the Shah-Deniz project – Norwegian Statoil and French Total – did not want to join the trans-Anadolu gas pipeline (TANAP) project.

Reliable sources told Turan that the Norwegian company has made this decision after the first results of re-evaluation of the TANAP cost. According to BP specialists, construction of 1790-km-long pipeline will cost $12 billion. Before that the project operator – State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) – claimed that cost of the project is estimated at $8-9 billion. 

The final cost of TANAP and Trans-Adriatic pipeline (TAP) has not been announced yet. However, world media already reported citing BP that initial cost of this chain is $15 billion. It is planned that construction of TAP, which is 870-km-long, will cost the shareholders $3 billion. However, this sum does not include the costs of purchase of land plots. Thus, it is considered that cost of the Southern Gas Corridor construction will exceed $15 billion. 

A source from the Caspian Barrel Oil Studies Centre told Turan that “the more expensive is the gas infrastructure, the less is profit for Azerbaijan and the Shah-Deniz partners.” Therefore, during next year the partners will work hard to make sure that construction starts in 2015 with the optimal conditions both for the customers and the contractors.—0—