Starting Gun Fired on Turkey's Tanap Pipe

摘要

Europe's hopes of becoming a major importer of Caspian gas, reducing its dependence on Russia, moved a step closer to reality this week at a high-profile ceremony in Turkey. This was held to launch construction of the Trans Anatolia Natural Gas Pipeline (Tanap), which from 2020 should start pumping up to 10 billion cubic meters per year (970 million cubic feet per day) of gas from Phase 2 of the BP-operated Shah Deniz field in Azerbaijan to the Turkish border with Greece (WGI Jan.14'15). But some key questions surrounding Tanap still need to be answered. One is Azerbaijan's ability to finance its 58% stake in the $11 billion project at a time of falling oil prices. Another is the extent to which Tanap will be undermined by Gazprom's Turk Stream project, which is supposed to start delivering Russian gas to the Turkish-Greek border in 2019, building up to 63 Bcm/yr (p10).