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was cited as saying that the TAP consortium faced “some technical difficulties as well as other non-technical issues that affected their success”. In May, TAP executives were only talking about launching operations at some point in 2020.
In October last year, Italy’s populist 5-Star Movement backed off from its electoral pledge to stop the construction of TAP. The U-turn sparked a row over broken environmental promises in Italy, but no doubt came as a huge relief to Azerbaijan which would face a mighty headache if the $28bn development of Shah Deniz II was met by the blocking of the gas route to EU markets. 5-Star said it was forced to retreat from scrapping Italy’s commitment to TAP because the country would face contractual penalties of €20bn if it withdrew approval of the infrastructure at this late stage.
Former party sympathisers set fire to the 5-Star flag in the southern Italian town of Melendugno—the planned terminus of TAP’s final leg—in a protest against the decision. 5-Star’s U-turn came after lobbying from figures including former UK prime minister Tony Blair, who has worked as a consultant on TAP since 2014.
Duzyol was also reported as saying TANAP shareholders expected to get $1.45bn in annual income over 15 years.
TANAP’s shareholders are Socar (51%), Turkish company Botas (30%), BP (12%) and Socar Turkey (7%).
9.1.2 Automotive sector news
61 TURKEY Country Report November 2019 www.intellinews.com
