Bloomberg: Azerbaijan, Turkey to Sign Delayed Tanap Pipe Deal End of June

Azerbaijan and Turkey plan to complete delayed talks on the proposed Trans-Anatolia pipeline that will carry Azeri natural gas across Turkey to Europe by the end of the month.

“We aim to complete talks this month and sign the inter- governmental agreement by June 30,” Elshad Nasirov, vice president of State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan, known as Socar, said today in an interview in the capital of Baku. The deal was held up issues over tax and the investment regime, according to Nasirov.

The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding in December on the 2,000-kilometer (1,240-mile) pipeline known as Tanap that will transport gas from the BP Plc-led Shah Deniz field in Azerbaijan’s section of the Caspian Sea. Socar has an 80 percent stake, while Turkey’s state pipeline company Boru Hatlari Ile Petrol Tasima AS, or Botas, and oil company Turkiye Petrolleri AO have a combined 20 percent.

At an estimated cost of $5 billion to $7 billion, the partners plan to build Tanap before the start of production from the second phase of the Shah Deniz project, due in 2017 or 2018. It will link up with other proposed pipelines, such as Nabucco West, that are vying for the rights to deliver the fuel on to the European Union from the Turkish border.  MORE