Over 440 km of Tanap Pipe Welded

Over a third of the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (Tanap) has been built, Saltook Duzoil the head of Tanap consortium told local newspaper The Lira.

He said the pipes have been welded on a 440-km section of the 1800 km pipeline. Work began last August in the east of Turkey.

He said that the engineering and construction agreements so far signed total $4.5bn and that work is on schedule. The plan is to complete a 1,350-km section, finishing at Eskishekhir, by 2018.

Duzoil also said that 5,000 people have been employed and after completion of the new tenders this figure will reach 8000.

Tanap envisages gas transportation from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field from the Georgian-Turkish border to the western border of Turkey. Gas will reach Turkey in 2018 and after completion of Trans Adriatic Pipeline, gas will reach Europe some time in 2020.

Tanap's shareholders are Azerbaijan's state producer Socar with 58% (and the operatorship), Turkey's transport monopoly Botas with 30% and the UK major BP has 12%. BP is also the operator of the Shah Deniz field's deeper reserves, Shah Deniz 2, which will supply the gas.

As of January 1, the capital costs of Tanap had reached $1bn. Socar expects Tanap to cost $9.4bn.

Azerbaijan desk