Azernews.Az

Azerbaijani-Turkish gas pipeline Trans Anadolu (TANAP) will help reduce the volume of gas currently purchased from Russia, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said in an interview with the Cumhuriyyet newspaper. "The project on TANAP construction will increase the supply of Azerbaijani gas [to Turkey] and reduce dependence on Russian gas," Yildiz said.

He said Turkey has done everything necessary to implement the Nabucco project, although the EU has not made any decisions in this regard. Yildiz also said the TANAP pipeline will facilitate the work being carried out on the Nabucco project, which is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region and Middle East to European markets.

Azerbaijan and Turkey have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the consortium that will build a gas pipeline to supply gas from Azerbaijan’s Shahdaniz field in the Caspian Sea to Europe through Turkey.

The construction of the Trans Anadolu pipeline, which will stretch from Turkey’s eastern border to its western border, seeks 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.

The consortium developing the Shahdaniz gas condensate field, which has estimated reserves of 1.2 trillion cubic meters, is considering possible routes for gas exports to Europe. In particular, it is studying the routes of the Southern Gas Corridor, which includes the Nabucco gas pipeline, Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), White Stream, and Turkey-Greece-Italy (ITGI) pipeline. The Shahdaniz field is considered a key source for the Southern Gas Corridor.