By Cansu Dikme

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will inaugurate Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project on June 12 in central Turkey, the country’s presidency announced on Sunday.

“The opening ceremony of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) will be held in Eskisehir on June 12, 2018 under the auspices of our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,” a statement by the presidency’s press office read.

The opening ceremony will host government and state heads, energy ministers, executives of energy companies and senior bureaucrats from shareholder and friendly countries, the statement said.

The TANAP project aims to transport the natural gas produced in Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz-2 gas field in the Caspian Sea and in other fields in the south of the Caspian Sea first to Turkey and then to Europe, it added.

Marking the efforts to further regional cooperation among Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia, that statement said the countries have engaged in major projects in recent years that would integrate the Caspian basin with the world.

TANAP, with around $8.5 billion of investment, will deliver 6 billion cubic meters of Azeri gas to Turkey and 10 billion to Europe per year. The European part of the project is expected to become operational in 2020.