President: Bulgaria supports Nabucco West implementation as TANAP continuation
Bulgaria supports Nabucco West project implementation as the continuation of TANAP project and is ready to exert every effort for this, Bulgarian president Rosen Plevneliev said at a joint press conference with Turkish President Abdullah Gul in Ankara, TRT Haber TV channel said on Wednesday.
Plevneliev voiced hope that European countries in the coming months will take important actions for the speedy implementation of the project of gas supplies from the Caspian region to Europe.
He also stressed the importance of TANAP project to diversify gas supplies to Europe, stressing that Turkey plays a key role in European energy security.
Gul said the joint committees of the two countries will meet to discuss the technical aspects of implementing the project of Caspian gas supplies to Europe.
Nabucco-West envisages the construction of 1,300 km of pipeline (Bulgaria: 412 km, Romania 469 km, Hungary 384 km, Austria 47 km). from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to the Austrian Baumgarten. The shareholders are the Austrian OMV, Hungarian FGSZ, Bulgarian Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and German RWE.
At present, a 20 per cent share in TANAP belongs to Turkish BOTAS and TPAO, 80 per cent - the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR). Earlier SOCAR partners on the project of developing Shah Deniz field have voiced their preliminary intentions to acquire a stake in TANAP project. According to the preliminary data, the partners intend to distribute a 29 per cent share in TANAP as follows: Statoil and BP - 12 per cent, Total - five per cent.
SOCAR intends to retain 51 percent of the equity in the project. Turkey will keep 20 percent of the equity.
TANAP project envisages construction of the pipeline from the eastern border of Turkey to the country's western border to supply gas from Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas field to Europe through Turkey. The initial capacity of the pipeline is expected to reach 16 billion cubic meters a year. About six billion cubic meters will be delivered to Turkey, and the rest - to Europe.