Construction of TANAP to start in April

​At the recently held Adriatic Oil and Gas Conference the issues of Southern Gas Corridor and its central site – TANAP - were discussed.

The representative of TANAP (head for PR of TANAP, M. Mammadov) confirmed that the resource base of the gas pipeline is the gas from Shakh-Deniz-2 in the Caspian Sea. The initial volume of supplies is 16 bln cubic m a year. The maximum capacity of TANAP is planned to reach 31 bln cubic m a year. At the present time the negotiations with Turkmenistan are held, potential sources of gas for the project are considered to be the northern regions of Iraq and East Mediterranean region. “The period of the construction works will be 4 years. The first stage will last from April 2015 until the end of 2018 when 6 bln cubic m of gas will come to Turkey. The pipeline is expected to be completed by the end of 2019 so as the gas supplies from Shakh-Deniz-2 to Europe would start in 2020”, M. Mammadov said. The head office of TANAP will be in Ankara.

He said that all the necessary agreements have been signed. BP plans to join the companies – operators SOCAR (58%) and BOTAS (30%) with a 12% stake, but this deal need to be completed.