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Eurasia
July 5, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 17
TANAP pipeline comes online, a major piece in Europe’s energy puzzle
Clare Nuttall in Glasgow
The Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) is ready to deliver Azerbaijani gas to Europe via Turkey, creating a new alternative to Russian gas as European countries seek to diversify supplies and boost their energy security.
The second phase of TANAP running to Turkey’s border with Greece was ready to start operations as of July 1. Next year, after the completion of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which connects with TANAP at the Turkish-Greek border, Azerbaijan will start delivering gas to European markets from the giant offshore Shah Deniz field.
Decades after the idea of building pipeline to deliver gas to Europe from the newly independent post-Soviet states of the Caspian region was
first broached in the early 1990s, completion of the pipelines will finally make the Southern Gas Corridor a reality.
The first phase of the route, already completed, is the South Caucasus Pipeline that carries gas from Azerbaijan via Georgia to Turkey. This links to TANAP, which in turn will link to TAP that will carry the gas on via Greece and Albania, then under the Adriatic Sea to Italy.
TANAP – the central part of the chain – is the longest and widest natural gas pipeline in Turkey, Middle East and Europe, said Azerbaijan’s state oil company Socar, one of TANAP’s stakeholders, along with the Azerbaijani government, Turkey’s
The second phase of TANAP running to Turkey’s border with Greece was ready to start operations as of July 1.
Botas, international oil and gas major BP and SOCAR Turkey Energy.
It’s five and a half years since the final investment decision for TANAP was taken in December 2013, with construction work beginning two years
later. The first phase of TANAP from the Turkish- Georgian border to Eskisehir was completed in June 2018, and the first commercial gas reached Turkey later the same month.
“Today TANAP is ready to supply natural gas to Europe and we are expecting the work on TAP pipeline to be completed,” commented Rovnag Abdullayev, president of Socar, in a July 1 statement.
Abdullayev also stressed the cost savings during the major construction project: in contrast to the cost-overruns at many major infrastructure projects, the initial estimated cost of $11.7bn was later revised down to under $7bn.
“Azerbaijan has demonstrated to the world that we are more than capable of delivering complex transnational projects both at home and abroad
in a timely fashion with high efficiency. During the implementation of TANAP, SOCAR and its partners saved about $5 billion, reducing the overall cost
of the project by 40%. This is a great achievement of the Azerbaijani and Turkish people,” Abdullayev said according to a press release from Socar.
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