Leaders of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey gather to celebrate opening of TANAP

Prime Minister of Geor¬gia Giorgi Gakharia, together with Presidents of Turkey and Azerbaijan Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ilham Aliyev, participated in the official event dedi-cated to the completion of the TANAP project.

The official event was held in Edirne Province, Turkey. The leaders of the countries participating in the project jointly pressed a button to launch natural gas flow from Azerbaijan to Europe for the first time under this project.

The Trans-Anatolian Nat¬ural Gas Pipeline Project (TANAP) aims to meet the European and Turkish natural gas requirements and diver¬sify natural gas supply routes.

The project costs US $ 10 billion. The TANAP pipeline will carry 16 billion cubic me¬ters of natural gas annually. In the future, throughput is planned to increase to 23 bil¬lion cubic meters by 2023 and to 31 billion cubic meters by 2026.

“I would like to thank the governments of Georgia and Azerbaijan in particular for collaborating with us on the historic TANAP gas pipeline project,” Turkish President said at the event.

He said that the TANAP gas pipeline passes through Geor¬gia to Anatolia and Georgia’s efforts in that regard are great.

“I am proud that with pa¬tience and effort, the 7-year long cooperation period be¬tween Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia has ended success¬fully. With the personal efforts of President Aliyev and active cooperation with the Georgian authorities, it has been pos¬sible to complete this project within such a timely manner.” added the President.

According to PM Gakharia, “TANAP is an important proj¬ect in terms of transportation of energy, which gives even more importance to Georgia’s transit function.”

As the head of government noted, the most important challenge for the government is rapid economic growth, new jobs and national security, and the TANAP project responds to all of these.

As the Georgian PM’s Spokesperson Irakli Chikovani considers, the TANAP project is yet another example that Georgia has an important role in the region, connecting Europe and Asia.

The Trans-Anatolian Natu¬ral Gas Pipeline is a natural gas pipeline in Turkey. It is the central part of the South¬ern Gas Corridor, which will connect the giant Shah Deniz gas field in Azerbaijan to Eu-rope through the South Cauca¬sus Pipeline, TANAP and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline. The pipeline has a strategic impor¬tance for Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey. It allows the first Azerbaijani gas exports to Eu¬rope, beyond Turkey.

The project was announced on 17 November 2011 at the Third Black Sea Energy and Economic Forum in Istanbul.