NATO sees TANAP and TAP pipelines as particularly important for Europe
The head of the Energy Security Section in NATO's Emerging Security Challenges Division, Michael Rühle, believes that the projects of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) for the delivery of Azerbaijani gas to European countries are particularly important for Europe's energy security. According to him, the issue of implementing the projects will be discussed at the Warsaw NATO Summit July 7-8, Trend reports.
“TANAP and TAP are of particular importance in reducing Europe’s dependence on Russian gas. A big part of the responsibility of this project lies with Turkey as well,” Rühle said.
Both the TANAP and TAP pipelines are an integral part of the Southern Gas Corridor project to deliver gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field to Europe. Other sources can be connected to this project at a later stage.
The TANAP project is aimed at transporting gas from the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field from the Georgian-Turkish border to the western border of Turkey. The gas will reach Turkey in 2018, and after the completion of the TAP construction, the gas will reach Europe around early 2020. The initial capacity of TAP will be 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year, which can be expanded to 20 billion cubic meters.