Participants of the Trans Anatolian gas pipeline project will hold talks with prospective new shareholders of this project, a Turkish minister said.

Taner Yildiz, Turkish minister of energy and natural resources said that currently, two companies are interested in becoming TANAP shareholders, Anadolu agency reported May 4.

The TANAP project envisages the transportation of gas of Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz field from the Georgian-Turkish border to the western borders of Turkey.

TANAP’s initial capacity is expected to reach 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Around six billion cubic meters of this gas will be delivered to Turkey and the rest of the volume to Europe.

Turkey will obtain gas in 2018. The gas will be supplied to Europe in early 2020 after the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) is constructed.

BP and the TANAP consortium signed March 13 a shareholder agreement, according to which BP will become one of the shareholders of TANAP. The agreement is one of the main documents for BP’s ownership of a stake in the TANAP project.

Following the completion of a legal implementation procedure, TANAP’s shareholders list will be as follows: SOCAR – 58 percent, Botas – 30 percent and BP – 12 percent.

The project’s cost is estimated at $10-$11 billion.

/By Trend/