Azerbaijan's gas exports to grow by 2025

Azerbaijan's gas export potential will grow to 40 billion to 50 billion cubic meters a year by 2025, head of the state energy company SOCAR said on November 21.

Speaking at a press conference in Istanbul, Rovnaq Abdullayev said the volume of investment in Turkish economy will reach $20 billion by 2023.

He went on to say that construction of the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) will start in 2014 and, at the first stage, the volume of gas transported through the pipeline will be 16 billion cubic meters a year.

"In the future, the possibility of increasing gas supply through TANAP to 30 billion cubic meters will be considered," Abdullayev said.

The SOCAR head also said that gas produced in Iran, Iraq, and Israel may be transported via this pipeline.

TANAP is able to meet Europe's gas needs, and discussions on TANAP partnership will be held with British BP, Norwegian Statoil, and French Total, he said.

The TANAP project, jointly developed by Azerbaijan's SOCAR, Turkish state pipeline company Botas, and energy company TPAO, will deliver Shah Deniz gas to the Turkish-Greek border from eastern Turkey. TANAP will connect to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) on the Turkish-Greek border.

According to Abdullayev, Azerbaijan's gas reserves are estimated at more than three trillion cubic meters.

Touching on the Star refinery which is being constructed in Izmir, Turkey, the SOCAR head said that his company will allocate $2 billion from its budget to the implementation of this project.

The Star refinery's processing capacity is projected at 10 million tons of crude oil, and it will be capable of refining such oil grades as Azeri Light, Kirkuk and Urals.

Speaking at the press conference, BP Azerbaijan Vice President for Shah Deniz Al Cook said that the natural gas which will be produced within the Shah Deniz Stage 2 development will be sufficient for all countries of the Southern Gas Corridor.

According to him, the final investment decision of the Shah Deniz consortium on this project will be made public on December 24.

(Azernews)

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