TANAP is important for energy security of Europe - Turkish President

By Azernews

By Gunay Hasanova

In the light of current political processes and rising ambitions to join the implementation of various energy projects, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a very important statement underlining the role of TANAP for the energy security of Europe.

"Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) plays an important role for energy security of Europe," said Erdogan, Anadolu Agency reported. 

TANAP project is a huge supply project intended to bring natural gas produced from Azerbaijan’s Shah-Deniz gas field, and other areas of Caspian Sea, primarily to Turkey, and onwards to to Europe. The TANAP project, along with the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) form the elements of the Southern Gas Corridor.

“In this issue a big part of the responsibility lies on Turkey," Erdogan stressed.

TANAP has received political and financial support from international organizations and different western countries.

The project complies with the requirements, as well as the intent, of the EU's Third Energy Package. 

Earlier, the message from TANAP said that the European Commission will allocate 3.5 million euros worth financial aid for the project for construction of TANAP via which Azerbaijani gas will be delivered to Turkey and then to Europe.

These funds will be used for supporting the commercial activities and the integrated facility management system.

The pipeline is able to facilitate connections to several planned infrastructure projects such as the Ionian-Adriatic Pipeline (IAP) and Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB).

IGB, which is expected to be connected to TAP, will allow Bulgaria to receive Azerbaijani gas. In early December, 2015, Bulgaria and Greece signed a final investment decision on the IGB project. The initial capacity of 182 kilometers length pipeline will be 3 billion cubic meters of gas.

The gas will reach Turkey in 2018, and after the completion of the TAP construction, the gas will reach Europe around early 2020. The initial capacity of TAP will be 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year, which can be expanded to 20 billion cubic meters.

The completion of the TAP is expected in 2019. The gas will be transported from the Turkish-Greek border through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea and then coming ashore to Italy’s south.