Press Releases

AN INTERNATIONAL CEREMONY FOR THE INAUGURATION OF TANAP

The inauguration ceremony of TANAP was held today with the participation of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President of the Republic of Turkey, and İlham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. TANAP forms the most important link in the Southern Gas Corridor, a complex project aiming to transmit natural gas from the Caspian Shah Deniz gas fields in Azerbaijan to Turkey and then onwards to Europe.

The Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project (TANAP), an $8-billion investment and a significant result of the successful energy cooperation between Turkey and Azerbaijan, was commissioned with a grand ceremony attended by three heads of state. The ceremony was held at facilities housing the MS-2 Metering Station and CS-5 Compressor Station in Seyitgazi, Eskişehir in Turkey.

Berat Albayrak, Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, hosted the opening ceremony that was attended by the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev as well as other heads of state and ministers. TANAP forms the largest section of the Southern Gas Corridor stretching from the Caspian Sea to Europe. SOCAR President and TANAP Chairman Rovnag Abdullayev, along with senior executives of project partners SOCAR, BP and BOTAŞ, were present at the ceremony in addition to industry representatives from the USA, EU and other countries of the Southern Gas Corridor.

SOCAR President and TANAP Chairman Rovnag Abdullayev emphasized that TANAP had further strengthened the historical bonds and brotherhood between Turkey and Azerbaijan. “We have always believed in Turkey and the Turkish economy. TANAP, which will be commissioned today, is being launched as an important indicator of our friendship and cooperation built on such trust. TANAP will further accelerate the economic development of both Turkey and Azerbaijan, and it will contribute greatly towards securing gas supply for Turkey and Europe. Bringing Azerbaijani gas directly to European markets will strengthen Turkey’s geostrategic position, leading the country to becoming an energy center. I would like to take this opportunity to thank once again to the Turkish and Azerbaijani state officials and all my colleagues who have been working selflessly in the construction of this project.”

Abdullayev reminded that the investment decision regarding Shah Deniz had been made in late 2013. “Foundations of the TANAP project were laid in March 2015. With TANAP, the volume of gas flowing from Azerbaijan to Turkey will be doubled by 2020. The initial capacity of TANAP will be 16 bcma (billion cubic meters annually) with 10 bcma of this quantity to be exported to Europe starting in 2020. With additional investments in the coming years, the capacity of TANAP could be increased up to 31 bcma.”

ABOUT TANAP AND THE SOUTHERN GAS CORRIDOR:

The Southern Gas Corridor will drive the Turkish energy sector, which operates under the slogan ‘Turkey is the Key for Energy,’ further as it keeps gaining serious momentum and will make Azerbaijan one of Europe's major gas suppliers. The Southern Gas Corridor will also provide supply and route diversity for Turkey and Europe, contributing to the securing of energy supply in the region and the formation of a market structure in which gas competes with gas.

The TANAP project is the most important link in the Southern Gas Corridor, which also includes the Shah Deniz Stage 2 gas development project, the South Caucasus Pipeline and the Trans Adriatic pipeline projects. With 1.2 trillion cubic meters in natural gas reserves, Shah Deniz 2 is the largest gas development project in Azerbaijan and forms the production stage of the Southern Gas Corridor. The total length of the South Caucasus Pipeline spanning Azerbaijan (443 km) and Georgia (248 km) is 691 km. The pipeline connects to TANAP in the village of Türkgözü at the Georgia-Turkey border. With additional investments, the annual capacity of the South Caucasus Pipeline was increased from 7 bcma to 23 bcma.

TANAP is the longest and largest diameter natural gas pipeline in Turkey, the Middle East and Europe, stretching 1,850 kilometers with 56-inch pipes in diameter, and includes a 17.6-km long sea crossing with twin pipelines. The entire system and the pipelines – except for the temporary facilities used during construction and aboveground facilities - were designed and built for burial in soil. The high-strength pipes and hot-bends used in the project were produced specifically for TANAP, and 80 percent of the mainline pipes were manufactured in Turkey. The project includes 4 metering stations, 2 compressor stations, 11 pig stations, 49 block valve stations and 2 gas outlets.

During excavations, 106 archaeological sites were discovered. This number rose to 154 with 48 chance finds during construction works. Over 1,000 archaeological artifacts were unearthed during the salvage excavations and were registered with the inventories of relevant museums. Studies and laboratory analyses have dated the archaeological site at Alaybeyi Mound in Erzurum to the Chalcolithic Age (approximately 4,750 BC), identifying the site as the oldest settlement to date in Northeast Anatolia.

TANAP also supports the people of the region socio-economically through sustainable projects, contributing to communities with three different funding mechanisms under the Social and Environmental Investment Programs (SEIP), the development and investment leg of the project.

The Trans Adriatic Pipeline project forms the European leg of the Southern Gas Corridor. The 878-km long pipeline connects to TANAP at the Turkish -Greek border. The pipeline passes through Greece, Albania and crosses under the Adriatic Sea, ending in southern Italy. Scheduled for completion in 2020, the pipeline will initially operate at a capacity of 10 bcma. As additional compressor stations will be included in the future, the capacity of the pipeline can be increased up to 20 bcma.

TANAP IN FIGURES

Highest elevation along the pipeline route – Erzincan Kızıldağ at 2,760 meters
Deepest point along the pipeline route – Çanakkale Straits at 65 meters
The steepest slope along the pipeline route – Ilgaz Mountain with a 30\% decline
88,664,510 man*hours worked
13 million cubic meters of soil extracted
The 1,103-meter Sakarya River Crossing, with 56” pipes laid via the Directional Horizontal Drilling Method, is the longest river crossing in Europe.
The 1,340-km section with 56” pipes from the Türkgözü village at the Georgia border extending to the main grid in Eskişehir was completed within 858 days from the first day of welding.
A record was broken by laying 10 kilometers of 56” pipes in one day.
A record was broken by welding 145 pipes in the 56” diameter main pipeline in one day (approx. 2 km/day).