New Europe: SOCAR, Turkey hail TANAP, mull further projects
Turkey’s Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told New Europe the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline or TANAP is a substitute for the earlier grand Nabucco project and now Ankara has no preference between the shorter Nabucco West and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) that will carry gas onwards from Turkey’s western border to Europe. He also said that Turkey supports Russia’s South Stream gas pipeline project.
TANAP envisages construction of the pipeline from the eastern border of Turkey to the country’s western border to supply gas from Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas field to Europe through Turkey. The initial capacity of the pipeline is expected to reach 16 billion cubic metres a year. About six billion cubic metres will be delivered to Turkey, and the rest - to Europe. Arriving by TANAP at Turkey’s western border, 10 billion cubic metres of Azerbaijani gas could be forwarded either through the Nabucco-West route through Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary to the gas distribution hub at Baumgarten in Austria, or alternatively through the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) via Greece and Albania to Italy.
“Nabucco was one whole project but when it was one big project we saw it wasn’t really doable. Then, we thought if we can’t make one large project, let’s divide it into two. The largest part of a 2,000 kilometres is in Turkey and 1,200 kilometres would be in Europe. It could go to Europe in two alternatives – to the south of Europe through TAP or to the north through Nabucco West. Turkey would maintain its positive stance towards both alternatives,” Yildiz told New Europe on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Baku. “Certainly Turkey is a partner in Nabucco West but the situation where Turkey is right now is beyond those preferences,” he said.