SOCAR president about details of TANAP project

Azerbaijan and Turkey will unite their efforts to build the trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP), SOCAR press office cited Rovnag Abdullayev, President of State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), as saying. He mentioned signing of the intergovernmental agreement on TANAP project in Istanbul on June 27, 2012.

Abdullayev said that on the one hand TANAP will supply Turkish local market with natural gas and on the other hand the pipeline will be used to carry gas to the western markets, which is a very important contribution from the viewpoint of energy safety of European countries.

"The route, which will be used to deliver Azerbaijani gas to Europe, will be chosen in mid-2013. Shah-Deniz consortium will have to choose between SEEP and Nabucco-West in the near future. Then the selected route and TAP will be equally evaluated for final selection of the route for transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe," SOCAR President explained.

Abdullayev added that the documents were signed in Istanbul according to the schedule, which was negotiated by the sides earlier. "On December 29, 2011 the sides signed the memorandum on TANAP and reached an agreement on the shares in the future consortium. The sides mentioned in the memorandum that till the end of June 2012 they are going to set up a company to implement the project, sign intergovernmental agreement and the agreement between TANAP Co. and the Turkish government (this document will envisage juridical obligations of the company and government). All the documents have been signed in Istanbul and this shows that all the set goals have been achieved," Abdullayev said.

SOCAR President expressed confidence that TANAP gas pipeline will be built before the first gas from the Stage-2 project of the Shah-Deniz field development is received.

* First gas from Shah-Deniz-2 project is planned to be produced till the end of 2017.-0-