Istanbul: Turkey’s state oil company TPAO signed a deal on Friday to acquire French energy company Total’s 10 per cent stake in Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz gas project, at a signing ceremony in Istanbul.
The agreement increases TPAO’s stake in the project to 19 per cent from a previous nine per cent, while Total exits the project. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
Turkish pipeline firm Botas also signed an agreement at the ceremony with Azeri state oil company Socar to raise its stake in the Trans-Anatolian natural gas pipeline project (Tanap) to 30 per cent from 20 per cent.
Azerbaijan’s biggest gas field, Shah Deniz, is being developed by consortium partners BP, Statoil, Socar and others.
Shah Deniz I has been pumping gas since 2006 and has an annual production capacity of about 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas.
The next phase, Shah Deniz II, is important for Europe as an alternative to gas from Russia’s Gazprom. It is expected to produce 16 bcm of gas per year from around 2019, with 10 bcm earmarked for Europe and 6 bcm for Turkey.
The Tanap pipeline will run from the Turkish-Georgian border to Turkey’s borders with Bulgaria and Greece. The preliminary cost has been estimated at $20 billion (Dh73.5 billion).
Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz has said construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2018 in order to start deliveries of gas from Shah Deniz II in 2019.
