It has been a year since the official launch of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project (TANAP), which will carry Azeri gas to Turkey and Europe. The amount of gas carried to Turkey via TANAP reached 1.8 billion cubic meters in a year.
The first step in TANAP was taken with a memorandum of understanding signed between Turkey and Azerbaijan on Dec. 24, 2011. Accordingly, TANAP Natural Gas Transmission Inc. was established by the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR). The company is authorized to be the owner of the project to complete the design, construction and operation of TANAP.
The legal framework of the project was created by the signing of an intergovernmental agreement and the Host Government Agreement between Turkey and Azerbaijan in Istanbul on June 26, 2012. The Host Government Agreement was approved by Parliament on Sept. 10, 2014.
The groundbreaking ceremony of the 1,850-kilometer pipeline, constituting the largest section of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) that stretches a total of 3,500 kilometers, was attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev in Kars on March 17, 2015.
TANAP starts in the Türkgözü village of Ardahan's Posof district on the Turkish-Georgian border and reaches the Turkish-Greek border, passing through 20 provinces including Kars, Erzurum, Erzincan, Bayburt, Gümüşhane, Giresun, Sivas, Yozgat, Kırşehir, Kırıkkale, Ankara, Eskişehir, Bilecik, Kütahya, Bursa, Balıkesir, Çanakkale, Tekirdağ and Edirne, and 67 districts.
The first test gas in the Phase 0 section, starting on the Turkey-Georgia border and reaching Eskişehir, of the pipeline, that has a total capacity to carry 16 billion cubic meters of gas, was pumped on Jan. 23, 2018. The official launch of the Phase 0 section initiated by Erdoğan and Aliyev in Eskişehir on June 12, 2018. After the official opening, commercial operations began on June 30.
A total of 13,000 people were employed in the peak period of the project, 82 million man hours of work was done and 175 million kilometers were covered. SGC, Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ), BP and SOCAR Turkey have 51 percent, 30 percent, 12 percent and 7 percent of the shares in TANAP, respectively. The 1,110-meter Sakarya section has become the longest river crossing pipeline project in Europe.
TANAP, accounting for $7 billion of SGC, which has an investment of $40 billion, transmitted 1.8 billion cubic meters of gas to Turkey in the first year. The amount of gas to be carried by the pipeline to Turkey is expected to reach 6 billion cubic meters by 2021.
The remaining 10 billion cubic meters of gas will be transported to Europe via the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). After merging with TAP on the Turkey-Greece border, TANAP will extend to Italy via Albania and the Adriatic Sea. Azerbaijani gas is expected to reach European markets by 2020.
TANAP General Manager Saltuk Düzyol told Anadolu Agency (AA) that they are proud of completing TANAP, one of the most successful projects of Turkey-Azerbaijan cooperation, in the prescribed time without experiencing any setbacks.
Düzyol highlighted that they have completed works, which they conducted in accordance with international standards, as planned and on schedule, saying, "We have done great work by working in various geographical and climate conditions along the 1,850-kilometer route from the east to the west of Turkey, respecting human and nature at every point we passed."
He further stated that the construction work on the Phase 1 section, required for gas transmission to Europe, has also been completed.
Expressing that they are on the verge of completing line filling works in Phase 1, which they started in April this year, Düzyol said: "It is planned that the transmit line filling gas will reach Measurement Station 4 in mid-June. The total progress rate for this section is 99%."
