Azernews.Az

The Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) will be commissioned in late 2017 - early 2018, head of the Investor Relations Department at the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR, Parviz Babayev said at the sixth Caspian Oil and Gas Trading and Transportation Conference in Baku on Tuesday.

The TANAP project envisages construction of a pipeline from the eastern border of Turkey to the country's western border to supply gas from the Azerbaijani offshore Shah Deniz gas field to Europe through Turkey.

"Commissioning the pipeline is expected by the launch of the second stage of the development of the Shah Deniz gas condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, which will take place in 2017," Babayev said.

The minimum capacity of the gas pipeline is estimated at 16 billion cubic meters per year with a possibility to increase.

Babayev said currently work is underway to select a route for the Azerbaijani gas supply to Europe and a final decision will be taken by mid-2013.

Azerbaijan and Turkey signed an agreement on the implementation of the TANAP gas pipeline on June 26.

In December 2011, Azerbaijan and Turkey signed a memorandum of mutual understanding on the establishment of a consortium which will construct a gas pipeline for supply from the Shah Deniz field to Europe through Turkey. Turkish BOTAS owns a 20 per cent share of TANAP, whilst SOCAR has 80 per cent.