SOCAR: Delivery of first gas via TANAP important in realization of SGC
By Sara Israfilbayova
Commercial gas supplies to Turkey via the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), which began on June 30, are an important historical event in the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project.
The statement came from President of the Azerbaijani state-owned company SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev, whose words are quoted in a message released on July 2 by BP.
“Despite the complexity of this megaproject, we have achieved coordination and commissioning of segments of the Southern Gas Corridor in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, which were carried out in accordance with the schedule and at lower costs than envisaged. Platforms and structures for the Shah Deniz-2 were built by affiliated companies and all construction work was carried out in the country, which is a great achievement for Azerbaijan and the whole region,” he said.
Abdullayev went on to say that working together with the regional governments and the co-venturers in the Shah Deniz consortium, the sides have met this target safely, on schedule and within budget.
“This demonstrates that together we can successfully deliver high quality projects. BP as operator is very pleased that the longstanding partnerships we have in Azerbaijan and the entire region have allowed us to bring this world class project to success enabling us to meet our commitments to consumers in Turkey. We look forward to continuing to build on this extraordinary delivery and work closely with the government of Azerbaijan, SOCAR and other co-venturers towards our next target of gas to Europe in 2020,” he added.
Shah Deniz gas condensate field, reserves of which are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas is one of the largest fields of Azerbaijan. Within the second stage of field development, the volume of gas production can be increased to 24 billion cubic meters per year, according to forecasts.
A ceremony to launch Phase 0 of TANAP took place June 12 in the Turkish city of Eskisehir.
TANAP, together with Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor, which provides for the transportation of gas from the Azerbaijani field Shah Deniz to Europe.
The initial capacity of TANAP is expected to be 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year. About six billion cubic meters will be supplied to Turkey, and the rest to Europe. After completion of the TAP, the gas will reach Europe in early 2020.
The share distribution in TANAP is as follows: SGC - 51 percent, SOCAR Turkey Enerji - 7 percent, Botas - 30 percent, and BP - 12 percent.
The launching ceremony of the first stage of the SGC project was held in Baku on May 29.
The gas from the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field has already gone through the first segment of the SGC - from the Sangachal terminal to the expanded South Caucasus Pipeline.
The SGC which costs more than $40 billion, is one of the priority projects for the EU and provides for the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe.
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Sara Israfilbayova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Sara_999Is
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