Turkey to pursue energy opportunities with Azerbaijan

ANKARA

Turkey will continue to expand its investments in Azerbaijan's energy sector, Berat Albayrak, Turkey's energy and natural resources minister said in Baku on Thursday.

Azerbaijan continues to be a reliable partner for Turkey and other consumer countries in oil as well as gas supply, Albayrak said.

Turkey is involved in a number of energy projects with Azerbaijan including Turkey's Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project, which is an integral part of Azerbaijan's Southern Gas Corridor.

"TANAP is a symbol of the strong unity of the two countries and of the win-win policy," Albayrak said.

TANAP will be a historical building block especially in terms of European supply security, with the opening in the second half of next year, he declared.

An update contract for the development of the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) block of Azerbaijan's oil and gas field, the largest in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian basin, was signed Thursday in Baku.

The duration of operational activities for the ACG field will be is extended from 2024 to 2050.

The updated contract is a historical agreement not only for Azerbaijan, but also for regional and energy markets, Albayrak said.

The ACG block is a symbol of Azerbaijan's unlimited sources, he said and added, "It also contributes to reliable oil resource access for world markets."

Turkey's TP, Turkish Petroleum, has a 5.73 percent stake in the ACG project.

Other partners include, BP (30.37 percent), Az ACG SOCAR (25 percent), Chevron (9.57 percent), Inpex (9.31 percent), Statoil (7.27 percent), ExxonMobil (6.79 percent), Itochu (3.65 percent), ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) (2.31 percent).

Albayrak reminded that other project partnerships between Turkey and Azerbaijan include the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (BTE) Gas Pipeline and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline.

BTE was built to transport the gas produced in the Shah Deniz field located in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea to Georgia and Turkey.

The BTC pipeline is a 1,768 kilometer-long crude oil pipeline from the Azeri-Chirag-Gunashli (ACG) oil field in the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea.

BTC pipeline carries oil from the ACG field and condensate from Shah Deniz across Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

Reporting by Ruslan Rehimov

Writing by Zeynep Beyza Kilic