Turkey may increase its share in the Trans-Anatolia Gas Pipeline (TANAP), Turkish Deputy Energy Minister Metin Kylci said, Trend reports.
Turkey's BOTAS, state pipeline company, owns 20% of TANAP, the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR) owns 80%.
Azerbaijan and Turkey signed a memorandum of understanding on formation of a consortium to build a gas pipeline from Shah Deniz to Europe. Initial capacity of the pipeline will be 16 billion cubic meters annually and may be expanded to 50 billion Azerbaijan will extract in 2025.
The two states may sign the deal on TANAP in April. The project is worth $5-7 billion. Construction is expected to start in late 2013 or early 2014.
Turkey continues supporting Nabucco to transport gas from the Caspian Sea and the Middle East to Europe. BOTAS is one of the 6 shareholders of the project.
