2011/12/26 Bloomberg

Turkey, Azerbaijan Agree on 7 Billion Euro Gas Pipeline Plan

Turkey and Azerbaijan signed an agreement to build a pipeline to carry natural gas to Europe from the Caspian region at a cost of about 7 billion euros ($9.2 billion).

Samsun–Ceyhan pipeline (SCP, also: Trans-Anatolian Pipeline) is a planned crude oil pipeline in Turkey from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean oil terminal in Ceyhan. The aim of this project is to provide an alternative route for Russia's and Kazakhstan's oil and to ease the traffic burden in the Bosporus and the Dardanelles.

The Trans-Anatolia pipeline will have a capacity of 16 billion cubic meters a year and cross 2,000 kilometers, according to documents distributed before the signing ceremony in Ankara today. The first delivery of gas is planned for 2017.

State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan will work with Turkey’s state- owned pipeline operator Botas Boru Hatlari Ile Petrol Tasima AS and oil firm Turkiye Petrolleri AO to build the link. Socar, as the Azeri company is known, will hold 80 percent of the venture, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said at the ceremony.

The pipeline may be linked with Nabucco, the OMV AG-led project designed to bring Caspian gas to Europe, Yildiz said last month. Azerbaijan will decide within a month on requests from European countries for gas from the Shah Deniz II project to be shipped through Nabucco, Azerbaijan Energy Minister Natig Aliyev said in Ankara today.

Azerbaijan can also supply Nabucco from other gas fields, Aliyev said.

Turkey plans to draw gas from the Trans-Anatolia project, supplying cities in the west of the country, Yildiz said.