BP to buy shares in three pipeline projects

BP wants to buy shares of the Trans-Anatolia Pipeline (TANAP), South Caucasian Pipeline for transporting Azerbaijani gas to Europe, as stated by a spokesman of the British company in Turkey Bud Fackrell.

BP owns 25.5% of the Shah Deniz Consortium.

President of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR) Rovnag Abdullayev said that SOCAR was planning to sell 29% of its 80% share of TANAP, keeping 51% to itself. BP and Statoil (Norway) were planning to buy 12% each, Total (France) 5%.

Nabucco and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) are the two project of the Shah Deniz Consortium to transport gas to Europe. The final decision on which route to choose will be made in May 2013.

Nabucco West will be a 1300-km pipeline running from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to Baumgarten (Austria) through Bulgaria (412 km), Romania (469 km), Hungary (384 km), Austria (47 km). OMV (Austria), FGSZ (Hungary), Bulgargaz (Bulgaria), Transgaz (Romania), Botas (Turkey)and  RWE (Germany) are its shareholders.

TAP will run from the Caspian Region through Greece, Albania, Adriatic Sea to south Italy and then Western Europe. Its shareholders are EGL (Switzerland, 42.5%), Statoil (Norway, 42.5%) and E.ON Ruhrgas (Germany, 15%). It will be about 800 km long with the initial annual capacity of 10 billion cubic meters of gas, then 20 billion cubic meters.

Shah Deniz has about 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas reserves.