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Gas from Shah Deniz field reaches Europe

18 June 2019 13:18 (UTC+04:00)
Gas from Shah Deniz field reaches Europe

By Mirsaid Ibrahimzade

Gas extracted in the Azerbaijani section of the Caspian Sea by international consortium led by BP as part of the Shah Deniz Stage 2 project has reached, along the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), the borders of Turkey with Greece, Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR has said in a message.

Previously, head of TANAP consortium Saltuk Duzyol told Trend that line filling of the section, which is required to deliver gas to Europe, has started since April 15 and emphasized that by July 1, the pipeline will be fully ready for commercial delivery of gas to Europe.

“Hopefully, we will be ready by July 1 and we’ll start commercial deliveries to Europe after completion of TAP,” he said, adding that by saying pipeline, he means the entire system which involves surface facilities, compressor stations, metering stations, pig stations and block valve stations. He stressed that it is a huge project.

Saltuk Duzyol also stated that the cost of TANAP may drop even further. The head of the consortium noted that they have spent less than $7 billion on the project, although the initial estimated cost was $11.7 billion.

“Thus, we managed to save about $4.8 billion. And there is an opportunity for further reducing the cost of the project," he said.

Duzyol also emphasized that this is a successful project that was finished within the budget and on time.

He further stressed that there were many project of big scale implemented jointly by Azerbaijan and Turkey. He said that it started with the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline project and went on with the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline project.

Duzyol underlined that Turkey has been importing Azerbaijani gas since 2007 under a contract that was signed in 2001 for the supply of 6.6 billion cubic meters.

“After the implementation of TANAP, Turkey will import 12.6 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas per year," the head of the consortium said.

Duzyol noted that the share of the Azerbaijani gas in the total gas consumption of Turkey has increased in recent years, and thanks to the TANAP, Turkey will make a great contribution to ensuring security and diversification of gas supply in the region.

Further, he stated that TANAP will certainly increase flexibility of supplies of Turkish network due to direct transport of Azerbaijani gas by BOTAS to the consumption centers located west of Eskisehir, which is Turkey’s receiving point.

“Currently, 66 percent of total consumption falls on the west of Eskisehir in Turkey, which means flexibility from an operational point of view. In addition, Turkey will receive significant tax revenues from the TANAP project," Saltuk Duzyol pointed out.

TANAP is one of the three segments of the Southern Gas Corridor, which also consists of Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TAP) and South Caucasus Pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum).

The launching ceremony of the first stage of the Southern Gas Corridor was held in Baku on May 29, 2018, while the opening ceremony of TANAP was held on June 12, 2018, in the Turkish city of Eskisehir. TAP and TANAP have already been connected on the Turkish-Greek border.

TANAP envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijani Shah Deniz-2 gas field to European markets. The first gas transportation to Turkey started on June 30, 2018.

TANAP, with a total length of 850 kilometers, is designed to carry 16 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually. Six billion cubic meters of the amount will be used to meet Turkey's demands, while the remaining 10 billion cubic meters will be sent to Europe.

The share distribution of TANAP shareholders is as follows: Southern Gas Corridor CJSC - 51 percent, SOCAR Turkey Enerji - 7 percent, Botas - 30 percent, BP - 12 percent.

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Mirsaid Ibrahimzade is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @MirsaidIbrahim1

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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