What is happening with TANAP gas pipeline?

Has Turkish state pipeline company BOTAS really made a decision to leave the TANAP gas pipeline project or is it going to sell part of its share in it?

Is information disseminated by Trend news agency and then by other media true to the facts?

Trend is a pro-governmental agency and it rarely uses anonymous sources in its news.  As TANAP project is in Azerbaijan’s interests, it means information from the anonymous sources would hardly be used by this agency.

Secondly, since December 2013 Turkish officials of various levels claimed that the Turkish officials would like to increase Turkey’s share in the TANAP from 20% to 30%. Azerbaijan’s reaction to that was very positive and it officially announced that before early February 2014.

What had happened during this time that made Turkey to completely change her mind?

At first, cost of the project may have gone up. However, according to the latest information, the cost of the project remains the same $12 billion. There was no information about the project value in the world media since November 2013.

Secondly, Turkey may have had doubts as to commercial attractiveness of TANAP. However, no statements have been made about that.

Then why does Turkish state company want to go away from the biggest gas pipeline of Turkey?

What has really happened?

As Turan found out, yesterday Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz made an unexpected statement. He said TANAP will be nationalized during the opening of an energy forum in Turkey's capital Ankara on Wednesday. He also added that the nationalization of the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) was offered to Turkey's cabinet on Monday.

Emphasizing the importance of the Southern Gas Corridor project by saying the project will change the energy map, Gordon Birrell, head of BP company in Azerbaijan, Turkey and  Georgia, said the project will also give customers in Europe direct access to the gas resources of Azerbaijan for the first time.

Why does Turkey need nationalization of TANAP?

Turkey’s position in this issue is unclear. Why does it need to bring up the issue of the gas pipeline nationalization? Turkey is represented by the state company in this project. Does Turkey want to have additional levers during transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe?

It seems like that Turkey and Europe have political problems and for successful implementation of the “Southern Gas Corridor” the Turkish government has decided to use the gap card.

* 1790-km-long TANAP gas pipeline envisages transportation of Azerbaijani gas from the Shah-Deniz Phase 2 project to Greece through Turkey. The initial carrying capacity of the pipeline will be 16 billion cub.m. of gas a year. In the future the pipeline could be expanded up to 31 billion cub.m. on a stage-by-stage basis.—0—