Azernews.Az

The terms, laid down by Azerbaijani and Turkish sides within the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline project, should be accepted by new shareholders of the project, a senior official of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) told Trend news agency on Friday.

He said at present active negotiations are underway on joining of three members of the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field development project - BP, Statoil and Total - to the TANAP project.

"The basis of the project is determined with the Turkish side, and all the terms should be accepted by new shareholders," the SOCAR official said.

TANAP project 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 meters a year. About six billion cubic meters will be delivered to Turkey, and the rest - to Europe.

Presently, a 20-percent share in TANAP belongs to Turkish BOTAS and TPAO, while 80 percent is owned by SOCAR. SOCAR intends to retain 51 percent of the equity in the project. Turkey will keep 20 percent of the equity.

According to preliminary data, the partners intend to distribute a 29 percent share in TANAP as follows: Statoil and BP are to receive 12 per cent each and Total would get 5 percent.