TANAP to ensure energy security of Europe

By Rufiz Hafizoglu

Turkey attaches great importance to countries with energy corridors and sources in order to weaken the energy dependence and provide energy security, the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who is on a visit to Azerbaijan, said in an interview with Trend.

At the same time, Turkey intends to ensure energy security of Europe, he said.

“Therefore, Turkey has implemented very important strategic projects with Azerbaijan during the past years,” said the minister.

"As an example of such projects, he mentioned the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which allows delivering Azerbaijani oil to the world market. Another project implemented with Azerbaijan is the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum," he said.

“A project, that is being implemented with Azerbaijan and which has a strategic importance, is the TANAP project," said Cavusoglu, adding that the project is considered major one in the Southern Gas Corridor and which will ensure energy security of Turkey and Europe.

“With the implementation of this project, the Azerbaijani gas will take an important place in Europe.”

In addition, thanks to TANAP, a natural link between the Caspian region and Europe will be created, the minister said.

“At the same time, TANAP is a project aimed at the future,” Cavusoglu said. “Turkmenistan in the future will be able to deliver gas through this pipeline.”

He said that a great work on the implementation of the project is being carried out. Cavusoglu said Turkey is the second largest partner of the TANAP project and attaches great importance to the timely implementation of the Shah Deniz 2 project.

The TANAP project envisages the transportation of gas of Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz field from the Georgian-Turkish border to the western borders of Turkey. TANAP’s initial capacity is expected to reach 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

Around six billion cubic meters of this gas will be delivered to Turkey and the rest of the volume to Europe. Turkey will obtain gas in 2018. The gas will be supplied to Europe in early 2020 after the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) is constructed. The project’s cost is estimated at $10-$11 billion.

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