Turkish envoy says gas pipeline project ahead of schedule

Text of report in English by website of Turkish pro-secular, mass-circulation daily Hurriyet on 25 January


The Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project, set to carry Azeri gas to Europe, is now ahead of schedule, Turkey's ambassador to Azerbaijan said on Jan. 24.


"The TANAP will be completed before the projected time and will start working," Erkan Ozoral told state-run Anadolu Agency.


The TANAP project aims to bring natural gas, produced from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz-2 gas field and other areas of the Caspian Sea, primarily to Turkey but also onto Europe via the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).


The project is planned to be operational in 2018, with an initial capacity to carry 16 billion cubic meters ( bcm) of Azeri gas through Georgia to Turkey. While 6 bcm will be for Turkey's domestic consumption, the rest is destined for transfer to Greece, Albania, Italy and further into Europe.



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