TANAP marks revolution in energy history of Azerbaijan and Turkey

Trend AZ

Trans-Anatolian pipeline project (TANAP) marks a revolution in the energy history of Azerbaijan and Turkey, as it will be implemented at the expense of funding and infrastructure of these two countries, the head of SOCAR Turkey Enerji, a board member of Petkim Petrochemical Holding Kenan Yavuz told Trend on Tuesday.

According to Yavuz, it is expected that first construction works within TANAP will start in 2014. And the first delivery of Azerbaijani gas to Turkey will begin already in 2017, he said.

According to the latest estimates, the cost of the TANAP project totals $ 10 billion, Yavuz said.

"At the moment we are negotiating with international companies such as BP, Statoil and Total on assignment of interest in TANAP," he said.

Nabucco and TAP gas pipelines could both be built one day -TAP

Reuters

Both of the projects vying to pipe Azeri gas to the European Union can be built but not yet, a senior official from one of them said on Wednesday.


Second pipeline could take another five-to-10 years
Decision on winning project expected by mid-2013



The governments of Albania, Greece and Italy on Wednesday signed an agreement, confirming their support for the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), one of two projects in competition to reduce EU dependence on Russian energy.

"There will be 10 billion cubic metres of gas available from Shah Deniz phase II. In that context, there can't be two large-scale pipelines built at the same time," TAP External Affairs Director Michael Hoffmann told Reuters.

"But we can have two pipelines in a sequential situation. It will only be a matter of time before more gas comes on stream from Azerbaijan, though this may possibly take another five to 10 years."

TAP is proposing a route through Albania and Greece into Italy, while the rival Nabucco West project would ship gas along a different path from Turkey's western border into a hub in Austria from whence it could be distributed.

Heavily indebted nation Greece is particularly in need of the kind of investment an energy pipeline would bring and Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras attended Wednesday's signing ceremony in Athens.

Turkey's big thirst for new power

Photo by Osman Orsal - Reuters

Florian NEUHOF*   The National


Turkey is in a rush to grow its energy sector. And recent news that the Abu Dhabi National Energy Company, known as Taqa, will invest heavily in Turkish coal-fired power plants shows how serious Ankara is taking this commitment.

The deal, announced at the start of the year, will see Taqa build and operate a power generation base totalling 7,000 megawatts, or about 10 per cent of Turkey's electricity needs by the time the plants are completed.

Turkey's energy minister, Taner Yildiz, is keen to emphasise that efforts will be taken to minimise the environmental impact of the country's power sector.

The plants will be fed with lignite, a soft brown coal reviled by environmentalists for the emissions its use entails. Lignite is found in Turkey's soil and offers some relief in the complicated task of securing hydrocarbons from abroad.

Turkey is dependent on imports for 91 per cent of its oil and 98 per cent of its natural gas and it relies heavily on Iran and Russia for its supplies. It is therefore keen to push the share of electricity produced from gas from about 50 per cent to less than 30 per cent in the next decade and to diversify its hydrocarbon sources.
Turkey has reluctantly complied with United States and European Union demands to reduce imports from Iran as part of a new round of sanctions, but its dependence on Iranian supply has meant it has refused to cut economic ties with the country.

Turkey says will support Azerbaijan gas transit pipeline proposal

Platts

Turkey would support a proposal for a pipeline to carry gas from the second phase of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas field to Europe, a spokesman for the energy ministry said Monday.

The proposed pipeline would be in competition with the EU-backed Nabucco pipeline project.

The pipeline proposal was announced Thursday in Istanbul by Rovnag Abdullyev, president of Azeri state oil and gas company Socar, as the Anatolian Transit Gas Pipeline Project. He gave no further details.

The spokesman explained that Turkey and Azerbaijan were working together to develop the proposed pipeline but that no definite decisions had been taken on where the line will start and end or on what the capacity will be.

Broadly it will run from Turkey's eastern border to its western one, and will carry 16 billion cubic meters/year of Shah Deniz gas which Azerbaijan has agreed to export to Turkey and Europe, he said. It could utilize existing sections of Turkey's main east-west transit line in addition to the newly constructed line, he added.

Azerbaijan questions Turkey’s Nabucco moves

İpek Yezdani     Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review

Azerbaijan has questioned Turkey’s attitude on the Nabucco pipeline project after Baku failed to receive a copy of the signed contract from Ankara, according to a top official from the Caspian nation.

 “Unfortunately nobody sent us the copy of this Project Support Agreement,” Elshad Nasirov, the vice president of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, or SOCAR, told the Hürriyet Daily News during a recent interview. “And we will not ask for it, because this will violate the principle of equal treatment for … three projects – Nabucco, the Trans Adriatic Pipeline [TAP] and the Interconnection Turkey-Greece-Italy [ITGI].”
Azerbaijan was the only project partner absent when the legal framework for the Nabucco Pipeline was reportedly signed and finalized on June 8 for the project support agreements, or PSAs, between Nabucco Gas Pipeline International GmbH and the responsible ministries of the five transit countries, Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Turkey.

The signature ceremony was organized just before Turkey’s June 12 general elections in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri, where Turkish energy minister was running for a seat in Parliament.

Turkish-Azeri Gas transit deal may ease caspian supply to Europe

Bloomberg 

Turkey and Azerbaijan will sign a deal for the transit for gas from the Shah Deniz-2 Caspian Sea deposit “shortly,” according to an Azeri official, boosting European plans to diversify supplies away from Russia.

“Everything will be signed very shortly, in several weeks,” Elshad Nassirov, vice president for marketing and investment at the State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan, or Socar, said in an interview in the Azeri capital Baku late Thursday.

All major issues, such as the price and volume of gas to be sold to Turkey from Shah Deniz-2, as well as tariffs for the transportation of fuel through the existing and future pipelines in Turkey have been agreed upon, Nassirov said, without providing details.

The European Union is looking to the Caspian, including Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, to diversify supply, offset dwindling production and reduce dependence on Russia. Pipeline projects in the bloc’s so-called southern corridor, including OMV-led Nabucco, are seeking supply from Shah Deniz, one of the world’s biggest deposits, as is Russia’s Gazprom.

One more gas pipeline to be built for Shah Deniz gas transportation

 

Rufat ABBASOV     News.Az

 

There is a plan to lay an additional pipeline on par with existing South Caucasus gas corridor. 

 

Existing or new infrastructure will be used to transport Azerbaijani gas produced within the framework of Stage 2 of the Shah Deniz field development, according to the report of BP-Azerbaijan for 2010.

The report says the company is currently evaluating all existing variants and defining the route meeting all demands of the concerned parties. “A negotiation export group from among the representatives of BP, SOCAR, Statoil and Total was created to negotiate with Turkish and European gas consumers”, the report says.

Earlier, the president of BP-Azerbaijan Rashid Javanshir said there is a need to expand existing transport infrastructure to ensure export of gas within the framework of the second phase of the Shah Deniz field development.