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Turkey interested in implementation of TANAP and Turkish Stream pipeline projects

Turkey is implementing various projects with Azerbaijan, Russia, and Iraq

ANKARA, March 13. /TASS/. Chief executives of energy companies of Turkey, Azerbaijan, and the United Kingdom signed a partnership agreement on implementation of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project on Friday. TANAP will not compete with the Russia’s Turkish Stream project, Turkey’s Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz said.

Turkey is implementing various projects with Azerbaijan, Russia, and Iraq. We are continuing negotiations on the Turkish Strait with the Russian side and the degree of our interest in it has not changed. We need the TANAP and the Turkish Strait, Yildiz said.

The design capacity of the TANAP pipeline will total 60 bln cubic meters of natural gas per year. First deliveries of the natural gas from Shah Deniz-2 field in Azerbaijan are scheduled to start in 2018.

In line with the TANAP partnership agreement 58% will be held by the Azerbaijani state-owned SOCAR, 30% by Turkish Botas, and 12% by BP.

Russia's suspension of South Stream, launch of Turkish Stream project

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the decision on Russia’s withdrawal from the South Stream project on December 1 while on visit to Turkey. South Stream was Gazprom’s global infrastructural project of a gas pipeline system with a capacity of 63 billion cubic meters across the Black Sea stretching from Russia to Bulgaria and through Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia further to Austria. Vladimir Putin blamed  the EU and Bulgarian authorities for lack of cooperation.  According to the South Stream Transport Company, European companies will suffer direct losses valued at no less than €2.5 billion due to the termination of the project.

Instead of South Stream, Gazprom will build a gas hub on the Turkey-Greece border under a new 63 billion cubic meter pipeline project. Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller said the construction of a gas pipeline to Turkey will make it possible to reduce the risks linked with natural gas transit through Ukraine.  Russia’s steel pipe manufacturers hope that all their products originally meant for the South Stream project will be redirected to the new gas pipeline project.