TANAP’s connection to Europe complete
Published by Lydia Woellwarth,
Editor
World Pipelines,
The opening of the European connection of the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), the major segment of the Southern Gas Corridor, was held at MS4, TANAP measurement point in Edirne Ipsala, Turkey. President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, Prime Minister Giorgi Gakharia of Georgia, ministers of Turkey, Northern Macedonia, Qatar and Bulgaria, high-level officials of Italy, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and the EU, senior managers of SOCAR, BOTAS and BP, as well as important business people attended the international ceremony.
The European connection of the TANAP, one of the most important projects of strategic energy co-operation between Azerbaijan and Turkey, has been marked by an international ceremony hosted by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and honoured by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.
SOCAR President and TANAP Chairman Rovnag Abdullayev addressed the meeting: “Last year we launched the first phase of the Southern Gas Corridor and its major segment – TANAP. Today TANAP is fully ready to deliver natural gas to Europe. The construction of this historic infrastructure extended from the East to the West throughout Turkey was finished within time and to a high standard. On completion of the construction of Trans Adriatic Pipeline, which will be connected with TANAP at the Turkish-Greek border, Azerbaijani natural gas will be transported directly from the Caspian basin to European markets for the first time in history. We look forward to becoming not only Europe’s gas supplier, but the second biggest gas supplier to Turkey.
“We fulfilled this significant project of TANAP together with our partners. This was the first complex project managed and completed by SOCAR outside the country, we are proud to have achieved a high level of efficiency in the construction work.
We finished the construction work at a cost significantly lower than the forecasts by international consultants who estimated the project, thus saving resources for the pipeline shareholders – the governments of Azerbaijan and Turkey, and BP.”
The international consultants estimated the project at US$11.7 billon, but with effective management, the project actually came in under this and cost US$6.5 billion: a total saving of 45%. Completing the TANAP work within due time and to a high quality, SOCAR managed to reduce the costs, saving US$5.2 billion for the pipeline shareholders, including Azerbaijan and Turkey.
In the context of commercial operations, TANAP has transported 3.3 billion m3 of natural gas to BOTAS since 18 November 2019 and is expected to deliver 4 billion m3 to Turkey between June 2019 and June 2020. Turkey will receive 6 billion m3/y from the end of June 2020. Azerbaijani gas will be delivered to European markets from next year and reach 16 billion m3 transportation capacity, 10 billion m3 of which will be exported to Europe from 2020. TANAP’s capacity is expected to rise to 31 billion m3 with/after the additional investments.
The first phase of TANAP from Turkish-Georgian border to Eskisehir was launched in an international ceremony held on 12 June 2018 and transportation of the first commercial gas to Turkey began on 30 June 2018. The section of pipeline between Eskisehir and European connection point at the Turkish-Greek border was completed mechanically by the end of 2018, and pipeline filling and test pumping began in April 2019. On 1 July 2019, TANAP, the longest and broadest multinational cross-country natural gas pipeline of Turkey, Middle East and Europe, became fully functional and ready to supply gas to Europe.
TANAP in figures:
- 1850 km length.
- More than 30% of the pipeline was built 2000 m above the sea.
- 135 332 major pipes welded in TANAP project.
- The project required 114 690 031 people/hour work, while its highest point is 2760 m, the deepest point is 65 m under the sea.
- Within the construction operations, 50 633 382 m3 of excavation and nearly 7000 special passages were constructed.
- 13 000 people were involved in the most intensive phase of TANAP construction and the gas transportation via the pipeline started on 30 June 2018.
- Through the Social and Environmental Investment Program (SEIP), the largest social and environmental projects implemented by the private sector in Turkey, TANAP carried out nearly 1000 projects to contribute to the social-economic development and to protect natural sources in the regions, villages and settlements, where it runs.
Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/project-news/02122019/tanaps-connection-to-europe-complete/
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