SOCAR: Azerbaijan seeks to become second largest gas supplier to Turkey
By Abdul Kerimkhanov
Azerbaijan seeks to become the second largest gas supplier to Turkey, the head of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR), Rovnag Abdullayev, has said.
"With the completion of the construction of Trans-Adriatic Gas Pipeline, which will connect to TANAP on the Turkey-Greece border, for the first time in history, Azerbaijani natural gas will be transported from the Caspian basin directly to the European markets. Along with being a new source of gas for Europe, we are determined to become Turkey’s second biggest gas supplier," Abdullayev said.
He made the remarks during an opening ceremony of the Europe link of the TANAP gas pipeline has been held in Ipsala settlement, Turkey’s Edirne province on November 30.
"Four years ago, heads of our states adopted a historic decision to build TANAP. In this respect, a great trust was shown to SOCAR when the task of building TANAP was entrusted to the company. The strenuous efforts we undertook for the worthy implementation of tasks set have produced their result. Last year we commissioned the Southern Gas Corridor and the first section of TANAP. Over 3.2 billion cubic meters of gas have already been transported to the Turkish market," Abdullayev stated.
Touching on the TANAP project, Abdullayev noted that SOCAR was able to complete the construction of the pipeline with high efficiency.
"We managed to implement this giant TANAP project which we assumed together with joint companies. Though it is the first time that we, as SOCAR, have implemented such a complex project beyond the country, we managed to effectively complete the construction works. We were able to complete the construction at a lower price than that predicted by the international consulting companies evaluating the project, and save the funds of both Azerbaijan and Turkey, as well as BP, which are the shareholders of the pipeline," he said.
At the same time, volume of deliveries of Azerbaijani gas from the Shah Deniz field to Turkey via TANAP from June 2018 to November 25, 2019 revealed. As SOCAR’s statement says, the figure will be 3.3 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas.
“Since the launch of TANAP and until November 25, 2019, 3.3 bcm of Azerbaijani gas were delivered through this pipeline. From June 2019 to the end of June 2020, gas deliveries through this pipeline are provided in the amount of four bcm,” the information says.
By the end of June 2020, the pipeline is expected to deliver 6 bcm of gas to Turkey. When TAP is fully ready to operate, the entire pipeline project will have the capacity to deliver 16 bcm of gas.
In 2018, 916.4 million cubic meters of gas were transported through the TANAP gas pipeline. As the head of SOCAR Turkey Energy Zaur Gahramanov reported, for 2019 gas supplies through TANAP are provided in the amount of 3 bcm.
As SOCAR predicts, the TANAP Turkey gas pipeline will cover 12 percent of Turkey’s gas needs.
On May 29, Baku hosted the launching ceremony of the first phase of the Southern Gas Corridor project, and on June 12, the opening ceremony of TANAP pipeline was held in the Turkish province of Eskisehir with the participation of the presidents of Azerbaijan - Ilham Aliyev, Turkey - Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ukraine - Petro Poroshenko and Serbia - Alexander Vucic.
TANAP shareholders are Southern Gas Corridor CJSC (51 percent), STEAŞ (7 percent), BOTAŞ (30 percent), BP (12 percent).
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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94
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