First commercial gas from the Trans
Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project (TANAP) to Turkey will begin
transit by June 30, Saltuk Duzyol, TANAP's general manager said on
Tuesday.
TANAP, which will carry Azeri
gas to Turkey and then onto Europe, is currently 93.5 percent complete,
Duzyol confirmed at TANAP's Eskisehir Measurement and Compressor station
where Turkey receives Azeri gas.
"Phase
0, which starts from the Turkey-Georgia border and ends in Turkey's
Eskisehir province is almost completed," Duzyol said and added that the
second part of the project - Phase 1 - starts from Eskisehir and
continues to the Ipsala district of Edirne on the Turkey-Greece border,
where TANAP will be connected to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the
pipeline that will bring Azeri gas to European markets.
"We
completed 80.7 percent of Phase 1. When we finish building this phase,
we will wait for TAP. The percentage of the total completion of TANAP is
currently 93.5 percent," he said.
Phase 0, which started testing on Jan. 23, is still ongoing but from June 30 commercial gas transfer will start, Duzyol said.
The
TANAP project has seen the employment of around 13,000 and currently
has around 7,000 employed. The project had 82 million man-hours worked
and the equivalent length of 175 million kilometers driven.
The
project has also revealed many unexpected surprises during its
construction phase, Duzyol said, disclosing that nine species of bugs
were discovered along with a new plant species, previously unknown to
the scientific community.
"We also discovered 154 archeological sites during the route selection and construction," he added.
He said the total value of contracts signed for the project to date is $5 billion.
- Project cost is under budget
Duzyol lauded the project management and the procurement process as a success in bringing the costs of the project under budget.
The
estimated investment cost was $11.7 billion at the start of the
project, he explained adding that, and "We have successfully pulled this
figure down to $7.99 billion with the procurement process and project
management we have successfully provided. I am proud to say that this is
a huge financial success."
He
disclosed that project partners awarded $3.75 billion in credit from
international financial institutions and the European Union provided
$10.2 million in grant aid.
The stakeholder numbers for the project have also increased from three to four.
"The
Southern Gas Corridor Company (SGC) had previously a 58 percent share
but transferred a 7 percent stake to SOCAR Turkey. Currently, the SGC
holds 51 percent, Turkey's BOTAS 30 percent, BP 12 percent and SOCAR
Turkey 7 percent," he explained.
Duzyol
also stressed that the TANAP pipeline could also be used to transfer
gas from the Eastern Mediterranean or Iraq, conditional on sufficient
demand and agreements.
TANAP's initial
capacity per year will be 16 billion cubic meters from which Turkey
will withdraw 6 billion cubic meters while the remaining 10 billion
cubic meters will be delivered to Europe.
(Anadolu Agency)