Turkey, Azerbaijan Hope to Complete TANAP Before 2018

Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project, or TANAP is expected to be complete before 2018, according to Turkish premier, Ahmet Davutoglu.

"We have reached an agreement [with Azerbaijan] to realize the TANAP project not in 2018 as planned, before it [2018]," Anadolu Agency quoted Davutoglu as saying Thursday at a joint press conference with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku.

TANAP would initially carry 16 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas a year of which 6 bcm will be supplied to Turkey, the rest going to Europe. By 2023, TANAP's capacity will rise to 23 bcm per year and then to 31 bcm by 2026.

Russian said Thursday that negotiations over the multi-billion-dollar Turkish Stream pipeline project, which would have carried Russian natural gas to Europe through Turkey, have been suspended, Anadolu Agency reported. This comes amid deteriorating relations between Ankara and Moscow after Turkey downed a Russian SU-24 bomber jet late last month.

Meanwhile, Turkey and Qatar on Wednesday signed a preliminary LNG deal. State owned BOTAS inked the deal with Qatar Petroleum during President Erdogan's visit to the country.

Although there has been no move by Moscow to cut gas supplies to Turkey however there is a concern regarding winter supplies. Turkey gets more than half of its gas from Russia while LNG is sourced from mainly Algeria.