Turkey’s import of gas from Azerbaijan should reach 20-30 billion cubic meters, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said answering a question by an Azerbaijan student during a live broadcast of the local channel ATV.

According to him, Turkey will successfully continue the joint projects with Azerbaijan.

Touching upon TANAP, the head of state said that the gas to be transported via this pipeline will meet a major part of Turkish demand for gas: “Currently, we purchase 6.7 bcm of gas. Of course, we need large volume of gas. On the other side, Europe has its own demands. EU made its suggestions in this regard, did not take necessary step. We have accelerated works on TANAP. By this project, we’ll fully meet our demand for gas. Along with this, gas will also be transported to Europe”.

Bringing Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project into the picture, Erdogan noted that the railway will be launched by the end of this year: “This project will strengthen cooperation among Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia”.

The aim of the TANAP Project is 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 on to Europe. The TANAP Project, along with the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) form the elements of the Southern Gas Corridor.

TANAP will run from the Turkish border with Georgia until it ends at the Greek border in the İpsala district of Edirne. From this point, the TAP Pipeline will connect to convey natural gas to European nations. With 19km running under the Sea of Marmara, the main pipeline within Turkey reach a total of 1850km, along with off-take stations and aboveground installations, with their numbers and properties detailed below:

7 compressor stations,
4 measuring stations,
11 pigging stations,
49 block valve stations and
2 off-take stations to supply Turkey’s national natural gas network

The pipeline is expected to cost US$10-11 billion. The construction is planned to start in 2015[7] and to be completed by 2018.[6]

The planned capacity of the pipeline would be 16 billion cubic metres (570 billion cubic feet) of natural gas per year at initial stage and would be increased later up to 23 billion cubic metres (810 billion cubic feet) by 2023, 31 billion cubic metres (1.1 trillion cubic feet) by 2026, and at the final stage 60 billion cubic metres (2.1 trillion cubic feet) to be able to transport additional gas supplies from Azerbaijan and, if the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline, from Turkmenistan.[6][8][9] Its capacity would be increased by adding parallel loops and compressor stations according to the increase of available supplies.[9] It is not decided yet if the pipeline will use 48-or-56-inch (1,200 or 1,400 mm) pipes.[10]