Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Donmez stated that they have reached the final point in their efforts to establish a natural gas distribution center in Turkiye and that they aim to initiate the first trade there in a year.
Minister Donmez made a statement to the journalists after the “9th Advisory Board Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor” held in Baku.
Talking about the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), Donmez said that approximately 20 billion cubic meters of gas was shipped to Europe via this line.
Noting that approximately 20 billion cubic meters of gas was delivered to Turkiye with TANAP, Donmez said, “There is a consensus about doubling the capacity of TANAP. Work on it continues. Of course, the field needs to be developed. So production needs to be increased. Hopefully, this capacity increase will be realized in 3-4 years. In this way, both Turkiye and Europe will contribute to the security of supply.”
Pointing out that the energy relations between Azerbaijan and Turkiye are not limited to the TANAP project, Donmez said:
“The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline works very regularly. There has also been an increasing electricity trade in recent years. We bring electricity from Azerbaijan. Now, in the new period, Azerbaijan has planned serious investments to evaluate the wind potential on the Caspian coast. The transfer of this renewable energy, which will be produced here, to Europe via Turkiye is also on our agenda and among the issues we are negotiating.”
Donmez underlined that their priority as Turkiye is their own supply security and said:
“While doing infrastructure works to ensure our own supply security in recent years, we are moving towards a point where we will transfer gas to European countries and subsequently trade gas. We have also made negotiations with the representatives of the countries participating here. The officials we talked to stated that they would support this project. We have reached the final point in our efforts to establish a distribution center and trade center in Turkiye. Our goal is to start the first trade there in a year.”
TPAO and SOCAR signed a cooperation agreement
Touching on the cooperation between Turkish Petroleum (TPAO) and Azerbaijan State Petroleum Company (SOCAR), Donmez said, “There were joint projects between Turkish Petroleum and SOCAR in some fields, especially in the Caspian region, from the past. In the last few weeks, talks about another field were continuing. Now the cooperation agreement has been made. Information about the field will be opened to both parties and evaluated. If there are positive results, Turkish Petroleum will have taken an active role in that field as well.”
Source: AA / Prepared by Irem Yildiz