Azernews.Az

The new Trans Anadolu gas pipeline project between Turkey and Azerbaijan is designed to reduce the cost of implementing the Southern Gas Corridor projects, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz was quoted by Anadolu news agency as saying on Friday.

"The realization of such projects as Nabucco, ITGI and TAP seemed doubtful," he said. "However, after a new gas pipeline is built…the issue of the implementation of these projects will have more emphasis."

The Trans Anadolu pipeline, which will stretch from Turkey’s eastern border to its western border, aims to export Azerbaijani natural gas to Europe.

Head of Azerbaijan’s state energy firm SOCAR Rovnag Abdullayev said earlier this week that Azerbaijan and Turkey have begun exploring the possibility of building the new pipeline. The pipeline is designed to export most of the 50 billion cubic meters of gas that Azerbaijan intends to produce annually by 2025.

Project partners are expected to begin construction operations in 2012, with their completion scheduled by 2017, when the second stage of development will begin at Shahdaniz, Azerbaijan’s gas condensate field in the Caspian Sea.

The Southern Corridor is a priority EU energy project diversifying energy supply routes and sources and increasing EU energy security. It includes the Nabucco gas pipeline, Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy (ITGI).