Trans-Anatolian pipeline agreement to be signed

The agreement for the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) project will be signed today at the office of the Prime Minister of Turkey between the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), the Turkish state pipeline company BOTAS and TPAO (Turkish Petroleum Corporation) in the presence of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Ilham Aliyev.

The intergovernmental memorandum on construction of the TANAP pipeline was signed on December 26, 2011. According to the document, the gas pipeline will be operated by SOCAR with 80% ownership, and Turkish state BOTAS and TPAO will get 10% each. In the future, foreign companies could join the consortium at the expense of reduction of SOCAR’s share.

A source from the Azerbaijani government, who is familiar with the negotiations, told Turan that two documents will be signed in Istanbul:

    - the intergovernmental agreement on TANAP construction (the document envisages principles and commitments of the governments on the gas pipeline construction), and

    - the commercial agreement on creation of the gas pipeline consortium (the document will be the basis for creation of the juridical company in the future for commercial activities).

    The TANAP gas pipeline will be about 2,000 km long. It will start in the east of Turkey and will be laid to the Turkish-Bulgarian or Turkish-Greek border. Construction of the pipeline will start in quarter 4, 2014 and end in 36 months. During the first stage, carrying capacity of the gas pipeline will total 16 billion cubic meters, at the second stage – 20 billion cubic meters, and at the third stage it could grow up to 24 billion cubic meters a year.

    The cost of the first stage of pipeline construction is estimated at $7-8 billion.     --12B—