Page 51 - TURKRptMar20

9.0​ Industry & Sectors 9.1 ​Sector news
9.1.1​ Oil & gas sector news
A 25-year supply contract has been signed with Italy and the first Azerbaijani gas is expected to start flowing to the European Union before the end of 2020​, Vitaly Baylarbayov, a Socar official, said in February. TAP was 90% ready, he added.
New archaeological discoveries could still delay TAP completion, he noted.
For Italy, SCG supplies are earmarked at 8+bcm/year, Baylarbayov added.
Turkey and Azerbaijan formally marked the completion of the $6.5bn Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) on December 1​. TANAP makes up the longest stretch of the 4,000km $45bn Southern Gas Corridor (SCG), a series of pipelines that will carry gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz II field to southern Italy, thus helping the European Union reduce its dependence on Russian gas. However, to meet that objective work must be completed on the delayed Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), running across Greece and Albania and under the Adriatic Sea.
TANAP has the capacity to carry up to 16bn cubic metres (bcm) of Azerbaijani gas a year. Around 10 bcm of that is to go to Europe, while 6 bcm will be allocated for the Turkish market.
TANAP’s shareholders are Azerbaijani state energy company Socar (51%), Turkish pipeline operator BOTAS (30%), BP (12%) and Socar Turkey (7%).
Russia’s $7.8bn 31.5bn m3 TurkStream gas pipeline to Turkey came online on January 1​. Since January 1, Bulgaria has been receiving Russian gas via Turkey instead of Ukraine. Bulgaria will get 2.9bn cubic metres (bcm) of gas annually though the new gas compressor station of S trillionadzha-2.
TurkStream runs from Russia for 930km along the bed of the Black Sea, terminating in Turkey’s western Thrace region.
Its first string will supply up to 15.75bn cubic metres of gas per year to Turkish consumers, while its second will run through Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary, delivering an equal volume of gas to customers in Europe.
Gazprom has determined the itinerary of the second line of the Turkish Stream pipeline will span Bulgaria and Serbia starting from 2020, then go through Hungary and Slovakia starting from 2021 and the second half of 2022, respectively.
Russia’s state-owned gas supplier Gazprom broke ground on the project in May 2017, after hiring Swiss-based Allseas to lay the pipe, and work on both strings’ offshore sections was completed in November last year. It began filling the pipeline with gas in late October 2019.
Turkey already imports 16 bcm of Russian gas annually through Blue Stream. That pipeline, which also runs under the Black Sea, launched in 2003.
Like elsewhere in Europe, Gazprom is struggling with rising competition and flat demand in the Turkish market. Its supplies to the country slumped 34.5% in January to September to 11.6bcm, on the back of a 8% drop in Turkish
51​ TURKEY Country Report​ March 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com