The Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project will enter into service as of June 12, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Berat Albayrak said Friday.
Speaking at the 11th Sector Meeting of the Electric Distribution Services Association (ELDER) in the northwestern province of Bursa, Albayrak said that TANAP, dubbed as the project of the century, will be launched with an inauguration ceremony with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev, other heads of state and ministers in attendance.
Albayrak noted that the Nabucco project has been discussed by European circles but could not go further than talk, and the TANAP project is being finalized with Turkish-Azerbaijani cooperation and through stability, strong leadership and vision.
Turkey will launch its first deep and shallow sea oil and gas drill in the Mediterranean this summer, Albayrak said.
The first domestic solar panel plant will start production by the end of 2018, while the groundbreaking ceremony for the first wind turbine plant will also be held this year, he added.
TANAP is the most important part of the SGC, a multinational European Commission project to transfer gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz Gas Field in the Caspian Sea to European markets to reduce the continent's dependency on Russian gas.
Turkey imports some 6.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas from Azerbaijan via the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline and the amount will go up to 12.6 bcm as TANAP brings in an additional 6 bcm of natural gas. Therefore, the share of Russian gas in Turkey's energy imports will decrease.
TANAP will initially provide 2 bcm of natural gas before gradually reaching 6 bcm by the end of June 2021.
TURKEY'S 1ST DRILLING IN MEDITERRANEAN THIS SUMMER
Turkey will start its first solo oil and gas deep-sea drilling in the Mediterranean before the end of this summer, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Albayrak said.
Hailing Turkey's achievements under its national energy and mining policy, Albayrak said: "We are also making great efforts to ensure there is no letup in this momentum."
Resources in the Eastern Mediterranean have caused friction between Turkey and the Greek Cypriot administration. Earlier in 2018, the Greek Cypriot administration unilaterally launched exploratory drilling activities for gas in the Eastern Mediterranean despite strong opposition from Turkish Cypriots, who argue that the island's natural resources should be exploited jointly to ensure equal rights for both parties.
The Greek Cypriot administration is a member of the EU but is not recognized by Turkey, which recognizes the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when a Greek Cypriot coup was followed by violence against the island's Turks, and Ankara's intervention as a guarantor power.
