BAKU BURIES NABUCCO: AZERBAIJAN, TURKEY TO SIGN GAS PIPELINE DEAL- NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA

tert.am
26.06.12

Turkey and Azerbaijan are going to sign today an inter-governmental
agreement in Istanbul on construction of Trans Anatolian Pipeline
(TANAP).

TANAP pipeline will carry up to 16 billion cubic metres a year of
gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz gas field through Turkey as far as
its European borders.

The project is in direct competition with the multinational Nabucco
pipeline project sponsored by a consortium that includes OMV and
RWE and is backed by the European Commission, Russian Nezavisimaya
Gazeta writes.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President of Azerbaijan
Ilham Aliyev are expected to participate in the signing ceremony. The
Russian newspaper says two documents are expected to be signed in
Istanbul – the above mentioned inter-state agreement and a trade
agreement on creation of gas pipeline consortium.

The founders of the consortium will be Azerbaijani State Oil Company
with 80 per cent shares, Turkish Botas oil state gas company and
Turkiye Petrolleri oil company with 20% shares. In future international
oil-gas companies may join the consortium.

“We are going to solve all the issues connected with the project
and without losing time pass to construction works so that the
new pipeline be ready by 2017,” Rovnag Abdulayev, chairman of the
Azerbaijani state oil company said.

The length of the pipeline will be 2 000 kilometers. The pipeline
that starts from Azerbaijan will stretch to either Greece or Bulgaria
through Turkey’s territory.

The first round of construction is said to cost $7-8 billion.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress