[Premium] Turkey Brings forward Tanap Commissioning

The official commissioning of the first delivery phase of Azerbaijan's 31bn m³/yr TransAnatolian Pipeline will take place in early June, rather than the end of the month, Turkish president Tayyip Erdogan has announced.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev who was in Ankara on a state visit, Erdogan said only that a commissioning ceremony for the line would be held "in early June" but did not give an exact date. Previously officials had announced that the line would be commissioned at the end of June. 

The change of plan is believed to have been made to allow the line to be commissioned prior to June 24th, when Turkey will go to the polls in snap elections announced a week ago. Speaking to NGW, a source with knowledge of the project said that plans had been prepared to hold the commissioning ceremony after June 15 but that it appeared that this may now be brought forward again.

However he cautioned that with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan falling between May 15th and June 14th it would be difficult to bring the commissioning date further forward without causing difficulties for those expected to attend the ceremony who may be fasting.

The first delivery phase of Tanap will see the delivery of up to 6bn m³/yr of Azeri gas to Turkish gas importer Botas at offtake facilities near Eskisehir in northwest Turkey. Supply will initially rise to 2bn m³/yr by June 2019, then to 4bn m³/yr by June 2020 and reaching 6bn m³/yr by June 2021.