Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan extolled the benefits of the Trans-Anatolia Natural Gas Pipeline Project in an article he wrote for the latest issue of The Diplomat magazine.
In the article “TANAP: Regional Development and Peace Project” published in collaboration with the New York Times, Erdogan emphasized that TANAP is a regional peace project.
“THE PROJECT HAS SIGNIFICANT POTENTIAL”
“TANAP is a concrete example of the long-lasting trust and friendship between Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia. It constitutes the main leg of the Southern Gas Corridor, which aims to take the Hazar region’s natural gas to Europe through Turkey and Georgia. It is the most important piece of a 3,500-kilometer long corridor.”
Erdoğan said Turkey’s process of change over the last 18 years created a suitable environment for channeling energy resources from this region to Turkey and Europe.
“Thanks to our cooperation with Azerbaijan and Georgia, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Crude Oil Pipeline was launched and commissioned in 2006. Later, the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum Natural Gas Pipeline was put into operation in 2007 to transport the natural gas produced at Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz field to Georgia and Turkey.”
Erdogan said Turkey is the world’s 18th largest natural gas market and adjacent to Europe, the second largest market in this context. As a result, TANAP has significant potential “in terms of delivery to Turkey and Europe of the natural gas to be produced at other natural gas fields in Azerbaijan, other Caspian resources as well as other countries of the region.”