Azerbaijan exports around 1bn cubic meters of gas to Turkey in February 2020

By Azernews

By Ofeliya Afandiyeva

In February, Azerbaijan exported 859 million cubic meters of natural gas to Turkey, local media reported with reference to the Energy Market Regulatory Authority of Turkey (EMRA) on April 27.

It is reported that the volume of gas imports of Turkey from Azerbaijan in February decreased by 86 million cubic meters compared to January.

It should be noted that in February, Azerbaijan was the third largest gas importer to Turkey, after Russia (1.1 billion cubic meters) and the United States (931 million cubic meters).

In addition, the authority reported that for the period of January-February in the current year, Azerbaijan transported 1.804 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Turkey.

Note that in 2019, Turkey’s natural gas imports from Azerbaijan amounted to 9.593 billion cubic meters.

Turkey imports natural gas from Azerbaijan via the South Caucasus Pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum) and TANAP (Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline).

Launched in late 2006, South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) currently supplies Shah Deniz gas to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

The combined daily average capacity of the SCP and the extended SCP is 29 million cubic meters. Last year, about $48 million in operating and $34 million in capital expenditures were spent on SCP activities.

The pipeline has two operators - BP is the technical operator responsible for the construction and operation of the SCP facilities, and SOCAR is the commercial operator responsible for the SCP's business performance.

The investors of the South Caucasus Pipeline Company are: BP (operator – 28.8 per cent), TPAO (19.0 per cent), AzSD (10.0 per cent), SGC Upstream (6.7 per cent), PETRONAS (15.5 per cent), LUKOIL (10.0 per cent) and NICO (10.0 per cent).

As for TANAP, it is a natural gas pipeline in Turkey, which is the central part of the South Gas Corridor (SGC) and connects the giant Shah Deniz gas field in Azerbaijan to Europe through the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). Construction of the pipeline, which began in 2015, was completed in 2018.

The first gas supplies to Turkey via the TANAP gas pipeline, which was commissioned in Eskishehir on June 12, 2018, began on June 30, 2018.

The second phase of the TANAP pipeline was put into operation on November 30 in 2018.

The TANAP pipeline has been ready to transport Azerbaijani natural gas to Europe since July 1, 2018.

It is expected that TANAP will transport 4 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani natural gas to Turkey in 2020 and 6 billion cubic meters in 2021.

Some 51 percent of TANAP’s shares belong to Southern Gas Corridor CJSC, 7 percent to STEAS, 30 percent to BOTAS, and 12 percent to BP.