The first
deliveries of Azeri gas to Turkey via the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) will
reportedly start in June.
“The first
flow to TANAP is being planned for June – one month earlier,”
Defne Sadiklar-Arslan, executive
director and representative of Atlantic Council Turkey, told New Europe on the
sidelines of the Athens Energy Forum 2018, while recalling that the Atlantic
Council has hosted many important events where agreements were signed for the
Southern Corridor.
“This is a
project that we follow very closely not only because it’s very important for Europe and the
Southern Gas Corridor, but it is also very important for the diversification of
the gas supply for Europe,” Sadiklar-Arslan said, adding that the project will
lessen “Russian dependence, which is also important for the US policy”.
The
Atlantic Council Turkey representative told New Europe that TANAP is being
constructed in coordination with the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). The gas
route from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz 2 project to Europe, which consists of the
South Caucasus Pipeline, TANAP, and TAP.
“In Turkey,
the coordination is intact with TAP because TANAP only aims to bring gas to the
Greek border and leave the rest to TAP…without that important coordination it
wouldn’t make sense as only 6 bcm (billion cubic metres) from the 16 bcm will
remain in Turkey, while the other 10 bcm is supposed to go Europe. Without
coordination this cannot happen,” Sadiklar-Arslan said.
Asked
whether the Gazprom-backed Turkish Stream pipeline or TurkStream that aims to
deliver Russian gas to Turkey and onto Europe would increase dependence on
Russian gas, Sadiklar-Arslan noted that reducing gas reliance on Russia “is
more important for Europe and the US policywise than Turkey. On one hand,
Turkey is trying to diversify its resources while also coming up with Turkish
Stream. I see it as a leveraging tool in other agreements in the region…in
energy contracts and so on”.
TurkStream
is a new export gas pipeline stretching from Russia to Turkey across the Black
Sea. The first string of the pipeline is intended for Turkish consumers, while
the second string will deliver gas to southern and southeastern Europe.
“Turkish
Stream goes under the Black Sea and it does not any plan to connect to TANAP at
all,” said Sadiklar-Arslan, while pointing to the fact that the first branch of
the Turkish Stream pipeline, which intended for the supply of Russian gas to
Turkey, is becoming a reality.
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/reducing-dependence-russia-turkey-speeds-tanap-pipeline-eu/