Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Turkey's Botas state pipeline company may increase its share in the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline project (TANAP) up to 30 percent.

The news was announced by Trend Agency which quoted Suleyman Gasimov as saying on March 17.

SOCAR has repeatedly expressed its intention to retain at least 51 of the 80 percent share in the TANAP project. The British BP, the operator of the development project of the giant Shah Deniz gas condensate field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea, has decided to purchase a 12 percent share in the project.

The remainder of the shares was planned to be sold to Statoil and Total companies, which also had equity participation in the Shah Deniz project and the South Caucasus gas pipeline. However, Statoil recently sold its shares in the project, and news of Total's desire to withdraw from the Shah Deniz project was published in the media.

"Information about the sale of Total's share in the Shah Deniz project has no official confirmation, but if this happens, the Turkish company intends to acquire an additional 10 percent share in TANAP, and thus bring its share to 30 percent," the Vice President of Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR for Economic Affairs said.

The TANAP project, developed by Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR in collaboration with Turkish Botas and the energy company TPAO, will deliver Shah Deniz gas to the Turkish-Greek border from eastern Turkey.

The initial capacity of the pipeline will be 16 billion cubic meters of gas a year. TANAP will link up with Trans-Adriatic (TAP) pipeline on the Turkish-Greek border.

TANAP shareholders plan to lay the pipeline's foundation in the second quarter of 2014, and commission it in 2018. The costs of the TANAP project are estimated at $10 billion to $11 billion.