Tanap to Start June 30
The TransAnatolian pipeline’s (Tanap) 1,340km “zero phase” which runs from Turkey's border with Georgia to Eskisehir will start up on June 30, the project’s CEO Saltık Duzyol said April 17.
He said at a press conference in Turkey that the shareholders have spent $5.6bn to the project as of April 1, of which 70% was raised from international financial organisations. The total cost of the 1,850 km line, to Turkey’s border with Greece is $8bn, about 32% less than initial estimates.
Duzyol told NGW that two compressor stations will pump 16bn m³/yr through Tanap, but it will take five more stations to reach nameplate capacity of 31bn m³/yr. He said the “zero phase” was implemented using cheaper materials and labour but he said costs were rising globally.
The Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), of which Tanap is part, is the biggest energy project the EU is pursuing, with the intention of delivering 6bn m³/yr of Azerbaijan’s offshore Shah Deniz’s second stage gas to Turkey and additional 10bn m³/yr to the EU by 2020.
Tanap’s capacity will reach 6bn m³/yr this year; 16bn m³ in 2019, 24bn m³/yr by 2023 and 31bn m³/yr capacity in 2026, according to a document, seen by NGW. However no gas fields, inside or outside Azerbaijan, have been set aside for the expansion beyond 16bn m³/yr that the BP-operated Shah Deniz 2 will supply.
Socar Turkey Enerji (STE), a subsidiary of Azerbaijan’s state-run oil company, signed a contract with Tanap late March and obtained a 7% stake in the project, from the Azerbaijan state-owned Southern Gas Corridor Company (SGGC). Socar now has 87% and American investment bank Goldman Sachs Group holds the rest of STE.
Tanap shareholders are: Socar Turkey Enerji (7%), Azerbaijan’s Southern Gas Corridor Company (SGCC) (51%), Turkey’s Botas (30%) and BP (12%).
The Republic of Azerbaijan, through the ministry of the economy owns 51% of SGCC and the rest belongs to Socar, which is itself wholly state-owned.
Socar also has a direct 10% share both in Shah Deniz gas field and the South Caucasus pipeline – the Azerbaijani and Georgian part of SGC.
SGCC also has a 6.7% stake in SCP and a 20% stake in the European section of the SGC, the TransAdriatic pipeline.
Duzyol said that last year Turkey purchased 6.5bn m3 of gas from Azerbaijan, which would rise to 12.5bn m³ in 2021. Imports from Russia will then decline but he did not say by how much. Last year, Russia delivered 28bn m3 to Turkey through Blue Stream and Ukraine, which indicates 16.7% growth on year, but Gazprom is completing the 31bn m³/yr TurkStream project, of which some gas is expected to transit through Turkey to EU.