Turkey and Azerbaijan to Sign TANAP Deal Next Week

Azerbaijani Minister for Industry and Energy Natig Aliyev has said that Azerbaijan and Turkey will sign an agreement on the Trans-Anatolian pipeline (TANAP) next week.

Speaking on a visit to Kuwait yesterday, Minister Aliyev said that he expects an intergovernmental agreement to be signed next week for TANAP though he did not outline what such a deal would cover.

The statement confirms an expectation from Chairman of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) Rovnag Abdullayev who said he expected such a deal to take place in March or April.

The Trans-Anatolian pipeline aims to carry gas from the massive Azeri gas field, the Shah Deniz field, through Turkey to the rest of Europe.

The intergovernmental agreement will further an agreement already signed between the two countries. Last year, Azerbaijan and Turkey signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enable the setting up of a consortium for the pipeline. 

SOCAR is one of three stakeholders in the TANAP project with an 80 per cent stake. Turkish companies TPAO and Botas hold a ten per cent stake each.