The cost of the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) turned out to be below $7 billion, Trend reports with reference to Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR.

"The project’s total expenditures were estimated at $11.7 billion when making the final investment decision. But as a result of decision-making on the sale and purchase at a favorable time and as a result of maximizing the benefits in the project management, we completed the project for less than $7 billion,” reads the message.

SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev said that today Azerbaijan once again demonstrated to the whole world that it is able to implement complex transnational projects not only domestically but also abroad in a timely and highly profitable way.

"In the course of implementation of TANAP project jointly with its partners, SOCAR managed to decrease the total volume of expenditures on the project by 40 percent by saving around $5 billion,” said Abdullayev.

The initial capacity of the TANAP pipeline is expected to be 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year. About 6 billion cubic meters will be supplied to Turkey, while the rest will be supplied to Europe. After the completion of the construction of TAP, gas flow to Europe will being by early 2020.