Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov has said that the Azerbaijani gas supplies from the Shah Deniz field to Turkey via the Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP) reached 2.5 billion cubic meters in early 2021, Interfax-Azerbaijan reported.

He made the remarks at the IV meeting of the energy ministers of the Economic Cooperation Organization countries.

“Since the start of the Azerbaijani gas exports to Turkey (in 2006), the volume of supplies has reached 82 billion cubic meters until now. At the same time, since the beginning of this year, 2.5 billion cubic meters of gas from Azerbaijan have been exported to Turkey alone via the TANAP gas pipeline,” Shahbazov said.

TANAP with a length of 1,841 km is intended for the Azerbaijani gas transportation from the Shah Deniz field within the framework of Stage-2 from the Georgian-Turkish border to Turkey's western borders. The construction of TANAP cost $ 6.5 billion.

The throughput capacity of the gas pipeline is 16 billion cubic meters, of which 10 billion is directed to Europe, 6 billion cubic meters - to the western regions of Turkey. In the future, the capacity of the pipe will be increased to 24 billion cubic meters of gas per year, and then to 31 billion cubic meters.

According to SOCAR forecasts, the TANAP Turkey gas pipeline will cover 12 percent of Turkey's gas needs.

The shareholders of the TANAP project are: SOCAR (51 percent), SOCAR Turkiye Enerji (7 percent), BOTAS (30 percent), BP (12 percent).  For its 15 years of operation, TANAP will bring its shareholders $ 1.45 billion in total annual income, of which 58 percent will come from Azerbaijan.

The construction of the 1,841-km pipeline started in March 2015, and it was inaugurated in June 2018.