Commissioner Oettinger welcomes TANAP gas pipeline agreements

 EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger welcomed today's signature of the Inter Government Agreement and the Host Government Agreement to implement the  Trans-Anatolia Gas Pipeline (TANAP):

    "Europe is now a step closer to its aim to get gas directly from Azerbaijan and the other countries in the Caspian region."

     Turkey and Azerbaijan today communicated the signature of the Inter Government Agreement and the Host Government Agreement. With these two agreements, the governments of these two countries give the project company the legal authority to build the pipeline. The aim is to implement the pipeline by no later than 2018. 

    TANAP will take gas from the Eastern Turkish border to the Western Turkish border, providing for stable transit across the whole country. The project will link to the expanded Southern Caucasus pipeline starting in Azerbaijan and continuing in Georgia and to a variety of proposed pipelines in the European Union. For the first time, a direct link from the European Union to the Caspian Sea will be established. -0-