SOCAR vice president praises Nabucco project

Azerbaijan and Turkey plan to conclude talks on the Trans-Anatolia Pipeline on June 30 to deliver Azerbaijani gas to Europe, Vice President of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR) Elshad Nasirov said in an interview with Bloomberg.

SOCAR signed a memorandum of understanding with Turkey in December 2011 to build a 2,000 km pipeline called TANAP to transport gas from Shah Deniz, developed by BO in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea. SOCAR holds 80% of the shares, while Boru Hatlari Ile Petrol Tasima AS (BOTAS) and Turkiye Petrolleri own a total of 20%.

The project is worth $5-7 billion. The partners plan to build TANAP before the start of the second phase of Shah Deniz development to launch the pipeline in 2017 or 2018. It will be connected with Nabucco West.

A Turkish functionary said that Turkey wants to increase its TANAP share by 50%, SalamNews reports.

TANAP will initially transport 16 billion cubic meters of gas annually. Its capacity may increase to 30 billion cubic meters.

The Shah Deniz Group will choose between Nabucco West and the South East Europe Pipeline (SEEP) by June 30. The SOCAR vice president called the Nabucco project “fantastic”.

The winner of the Central European route will compete with the Trans-Adriatic (TAP) project, developed by EGL AG, Statoil ASA (STL) and EON Ruhrgas AG. The final decision will be made by mid-2013, Nasirov said.

Azerbaijan will be able to transport 10 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe annually for at least 25 years.