Baku, Azerbaijan, March 5
By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:
Turkey is striving to turn into a regional energy hub, Doctor Haldun Yalcinkaya at the Turkish University of Economics and Technology (TOBB) told Trend on March 4.
"Despite not all projects being implemented and there are some that were abandoned, Ankara is systematically working to be at the centre of energy projects," he added.
"Ankara's efforts aimed at turning into an energy hub, sooner or later will become effective," he said.
He also stressed that Ankara always looks for alternatives for implementing energy projects.
"The Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP), as well as other projects clearly confirm this," he said.
The TANAP project envisages transporting gas from the Shah Deniz field through Turkey up to the country's border with Europe. The initial capacity of the pipeline is expected to be 16 billion cubic meters per year. About six billion cubic meters of gas will be delivered to Turkey and the rest to Europe. In the future, the pipeline's capacity can be expanded to 31 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
Currently the share distribution in the TANAP project is Turkey (20 percent) and Azerbaijan (80 percent). Following the completion of the process to acquire a stake in the TANAP project by British company BP, shares in the project will be distributed as follows: SOCAR (operator) - 68 percent , Botas (Turkish state pipeline company) - 20 percent and BP - 12 percent.
TANAP shareholders plan to lay the pipeline's foundation in the second quarter of 2014 and to commission it in 2018. TANAP project's cost is estimated at $10 billion to $11 billion.
On December 17, 2013, a final investment decision was made on the second phase of the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz offshore gas and condensate field's development.
Gas from the field will go first to the European market. The gas to be produced within the second phase of the field's development will be exported to Turkey at six billion cubic meters per year and to European markets (10 billion cubic meters per year) by means of expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and construction of the Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).
TAP's initial capacity will be 10 billion cubic meters per year, with a possibility of expanding it to 20 billion cubic meters per year. TAP's shareholders include BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Statoil (20 percent), Fluxys (16 percent), Total (10 percent), E.ON (nine percent) and Axpo (five percent).
Partners operating for the Shah Deniz field's development which has reserves of 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas, include the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) with a share of 16.7 percent, British BP (28.8 percent), Norwegian Statoil (15.5 percent), Iranian NICO (10 percent), French Total (10 percent), Russian Lukoil (10 percent) and Turkish TPAO (nine percent).
Translated by NH
Edited by SM
