Turkey's Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ) and the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) will establish a joint venture to operate Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project (TANAP).
Apart from operating TANAP, the company will also be responsible for the safety of the pipeline, according to the Turkish language daily, Habertürk.
The project will start delivering the first commercial gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas field in June.
BOTAŞ and SOCAR will own 50 percent of the company each and are not considering a third partner as yet.
The natural gas from Shah Deniz gas field will be transported to Turkey and Europe via TANAP. Under the project, a 1,800-kilometer pipeline will be laid within Turkey, from its eastern border with Georgia to its western borders with Greece.The Eskişehir section of the line has already been completed and is currently undergoing tests. BOTAŞ will start supplying gas from Eskişehir as of July 1.
Azerbaijan will initially supply around 16 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas annually, including 10 bcm to Europe and 6 bcm to Turkey.
A similar version of the operation model has been implemented in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) Oil Pipeline Project, which transports Azeri oil via Georgia to the Turkish city of Ceyhan and then to world markets. BOTAŞ International (BIL) was established in 2001 to operate the BTC.
