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The consortium of Nabucco West project seeking to transport Azerbaijani gas to Europe is ready to start talks on interconnection with Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP), the Nabucco pipeline consortium`s spokesman has said.

``We are ready to start talks on how to interconnect these two projects,`` Christian Dolezal said in an interview with Trend news agency.

According to Dolezal, negotiations on the issue will start in the coming months.

Azerbaijan and Turkey signed an intergovernmental agreement on the TANAP pipeline project in late June. The project envisages construction of a pipeline from the eastern border of Turkey to the country`s western border. Azerbaijani state energy firm Socar has an 80 percent stake in the project, while Turkey`s state pipeline company Boru Hatlari Ile Petrol Tasima AS, or Botas, and oil company Turkiye Petrolleri AO have a combined 20 percent.

Initial capacity of the TANAP pipeline is expected to be 16 billion cubic meters a year. About 6 billion cubic meters will be delivered to Turkey and the rest will go to European markets.

Nabucco West is a short-cut version of Nabucco project, which envisages construction of a pipeline from Turkish-Bulgarian border to Austria. Gas to be produced during the second phase of developing Azerbaijan`s Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea is considered the main source for the project. The project`s shareholders are Bulgarian Energy Holding, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas, Austrian OMV, German RWE and Hungary`s FGSZ.

In June the Shah Deniz consortium selected Nabucco West as the single pipeline option for the potential export of Shah Deniz Stage 2 gas to Central Europe. Earlier this year, the consortium made Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) a priority route for the exports of Azerbaijani gas to Italy in southern Europe. The final decision on a pipeline export route is expected in 2013.

Dolezal said that the construction of the Nabucco West pipeline will begin as soon as the final investment decision is made on the project and will take three to four years.

``Our main aim is to have the pipeline ready when the producers start to produce the gas,`` Dolezal said.

Producers in the Shah Deniz II field, led by BP and Statoil, plan to ship 10 billion cubic meters a year through Turkey into Europe from 2017 or 2018.

An official of TAP, a rival gas export project, says Trans Adriatic Pipeline may also be linked to TANAP to transport Azerbaijani gas to Europe.

Michael Hoffmann, TAP External Affairs and Communications Director, said last month TAP entered into a technical cooperation agreement with Socar and the Shah Deniz consortium.

``In its framework we are currently engaging with them on various technical issues and potential interconnections with TANAP and / or Interconnector Turkey-Greece,`` Hoffmann told Trend in an e-mail.

TAP, which is one of the projects within the Southern Gas Corridor of pipelines, is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy and further into western Europe.

According to Hoffmann, the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) between Azerbaijan and Turkey on TANAP is very important for TAP.

``This IGA provides for a dedicated gas route across Turkey to the Turkish-Greek border where it will connect to TAP for further transportation of Caspian gas to Europe via Greece, Albania and Italy.``

Hoffmann stressed that TAP remains confident that it offers the best economic, commercial, technical and strategic advantages to Shah Deniz consortium as well as to European energy consumers.

TAP`s initial pipeline capacity will be 10 billion cubic meters per year, expandable to 20 billion cubic meters. TAP`s shareholders are EGL of Switzerland (42.5 percent), Norway`s Statoil (42.5 pct) and E.ON Ruhrgas of Germany (15 pct).

Meanwhile, head of Azerbaijan`s state oil fund Sofar, Shahmar Movsumov, said the fund considers the possibility of becoming one of the investors in the construction of the TANAP pipeline.

Movsumov told a press conference on Monday that TANAP is a project of regional scale with equal strategic importance as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

``The Azerbaijani government is ready to make every effort to facilitate implementation of this project, and in particular the possibility of investing funds in it from the state oil fund of Azerbaijan,`` Movsumov said.