Azeri state energy firm SOCAR reduced cost of the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), which will carry Azeri gas to European markets, by almost a quarter to around $8.3 billion.
SOCAR's president Rovnag Abdullayev said on Tuesday that the reduction in the cost was due to lower prices for pipes. Makers of pipeline products have lowered their prices due to oversupply in the market.
"That has allowed us to think that the construction of TANAP will cost 20-25 percent less than it was initially projected," Abdullayev told reporters.
TANAP is expected to carry 16 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas a year from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz II field in the Caspian Sea, one of the world's largest gas fields, which is being developed by a BP-led consortium.
The 1,850 kilometre pipeline will run from the Turkish-Georgian border to Turkey's border with Bulgaria and Greece.
The project was inaugurated in March and is expected to be completed by the end of 2018 in order to start deliveries of gas from Shah Deniz II to Europe in 2019-2020.
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