SOCAR intends significant increase in investment projects in Turkey

The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) intends to invest about $10 billion in projects in Turkey in the next seven or eight years, vice president on economic issues Suleyman Gasimov said during the 19th international conference on Caspian Oil and Gas, SOCAR said on Thursday, Trend informs.

"In view of the TANAP construction project, the total amount of investments in Turkey may exceed $17 billion," Gasimov said.

Azerbaijan and Turkey signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the consortium that will build a gas pipeline to supply gas from the Shah Deniz gas field to Europe through Turkey. BOTAS has a 20 per cent stake in TANAP, while SOCAR holds 80 per cent in the project.

The initial capacity of the pipeline will be 16 billion cubic meters. Some six billion cubic meters of the volume will be supplied to Turkey, while the rest will be transported to Europe.
At present, Azerbaijan is choosing a route for gas exports to Europe via Turkey. Azerbaijan is exporting gas to Turkey via the South Caucasus gas pipeline.