Turkey to Prioritize TANAP over Nabucco Pipeline
World | January 31, 2012, Tuesday // 14:00| views
Map of the EU-backed Nabucco gas pipeline project
Turkey would no longer lend full support to the Nabucco gas pipeline project and would shift its priority to its own TANAP project, an official from Turkey's Energy Ministry revealed on Tuesday, as cited by local media.
The spokesperson confirmed that Turkey would continue its participation in the consortium of six companies developing the Nabucco natural gas pipeline.
Despite that, the country would prioritize the implementation of the Trans Anatolian Pipeline Project (TANAP), the expert announced.
He further explained that TANAP was much cheaper and much easier to implement, compared to Nabucco.
Nabucco, which is to carry up to 31 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year from the Caspian region to Europe, is expected to relieve Europe's dependence on Russian gas supplies.
The construction of the 4000-kilometer pipeline is to start in 2013 and the first gas is to flow in 2017.
TANAP, unlike Nabucco, will use existing Turkish gas transmission pipelines, to carry up to 16 billion cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field to Turkey's borders with Greece and Bulgaria.
"TANAP will only carry the gas that is available from Azerbaijan, whereas Nabucco has to find other sources of gas in order to be commercially viable," the spokesperson of the Turkish Energy Ministry said, as cited by DPA.
In end-December 2011, Turkey and Azerbaijan signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the establishment of a consortium which will build a gas pipeline to transport gas from Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field to Europe through the Turkish territory.
TANAP is necessary for the export of a major portion of the 50 bcm of gas that Azerbaijan plans to produce in 2025.
The participants in the project intend to solve all issues on the gas pipeline in 2012 so that it can be completed by late 2017, when the second stage of development of the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field will be launched.
TANAP is expected to become the basis for the Southern gas Corridor.
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