Turkish, Azeri, Georgian leaders to inaugurate TANAP pipeline in central Turkey
ANKARA
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili will inaugurate the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project on June 12 in central Turkey, Ankara announced on June 10.
“The opening ceremony of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) will be held in Eskişehir on June 12, 2018 under the auspices of our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,” a statement by the presidency’s press office read.
The opening ceremony will host government and state heads, energy ministers, executives of energy companies and senior bureaucrats from shareholder and friendly countries, the statement said.
The TANAP project aims to transport the natural gas produced in Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz-2 gas field in the Caspian Sea and in other fields in the south of the Caspian Sea first to Turkey and then to Europe, it added.
Marking efforts to further regional cooperation between Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia, that statement said the countries have engaged in major projects in recent years that would integrate the Caspian basin with the world.
TANAP, with around $8.5 billion of investment, will deliver 6 billion cubic meters of Azeri gas to Turkey and 10 billion to Europe per year. The European part of the project is expected to become operational in 2020.
TANAP, running from the eastern province of Ardahan on the border with Georgia towards borders with Greece and Bulgaria, is the central and longest section of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC). The main aim of the SGC is to connect the giant Shah Deniz gas field in Azerbaijan to Europe through the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP), TANAP, and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). The SCP runs from Azerbaijan to Turkey through Georgia and the TAP starts in Greece and runs to Italy through Albania and the Adriatic Sea.
The TANAP project will enter into service as of June 12, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Berat Albayrak said on May 11.