While the major energy consortiums wait for Baku to decide among the Nabucco, TAP, ITGI, and BP proposals for the Shah Deniz 2 gas deposits, Azerbaijan and Turkey have moved on their own. The two countries have decided to build on the South East European Pipeline (SEEP) proposal, and upgrade existing pipelines through Turkey. This new pipeline proposal, called the Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline, will carry 16 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas per year. This represents the 6 bcm Turkey consumes domestically, and a 10 bcm throughput to Europe, according to Robert Cutler of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute.
Turkey and Azerbaijan signed an agreement on October 25 to allow the 10 bcm to transit Anatolia. At the time, most analysts thought this was a prelude to Baku's accepting one of the existing Southern Corridor plans. The proposed owner of the pipeline, SOCAR, had a different idea. Rovnag Abdullaev, SOCAR president, announced on October 27 the two countries would build the Trans Anatolian Gas Pipeline. This announcement was ignored until late November, however, when Abdullaev repeated it at the Third Black Sea Energy and Economic Forum, according to an article by Cutler in the Asia Times.
The same article reports that Turkish officials estimate the cost of the TAGP will be 5-6 billion dollars. This would be a significant savings over Europe's preferred Nabucco route, estimated between 10-19 billion dollars.
The TAGP is a clear alternative to other Southern Corridor proposals, but does not necessarily foreclose being incorporated into a larger project at a later date. Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz said the TAGP would reduce the cost of the larger proposals, while casting doubt that they would ever be built. "The implementation of such projects as Nabucco, ITGI and TAP seemed doubtful," the Asia Times quotes.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov disagreed. At a Washington DC conference in October, he said the Azerbaijani-Turkish transit agreement meant the Southern Corridor was one step closer to being launched," according to UPI.
