South Caucasus Pipeline

An explosion has hit the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars-Erzurum gas pipeline in eastern Turkey, a provincial governor has told Anadolu Agency.

Günay Özdemir, the governor of northeastern Kars province, said the blast happened in the early hours of Aug. 4 at a section of the pipeline located in the Sar?kam?? district. Gas flow was cut in nearby Ya?basan village for safety reasons.

Norway?s Statoil announced the closure of its offices in Turkey on June 15, after its sale of a stake in Malaysian company Petronas? Shah Deniz project in Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Natiq Aliyev has said Azeri gas will reach Europe by 2020.

Speaking at a panel discussion at the Energy Security Conference in Berlin on May 7, Aliyev said a quarter of the construction on the Southern Gas Corridor had been completed.

EU energy boss Maros Sefcovic said late on April 30 that Europe could import natural gas from ex-Soviet Turkmenistan via Iran as Brussels ramps up efforts to break its dependence on Russian-sourced energy.

Turkey and Azerbaijan began on Tuesday the construction of the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP).

Turkish President Recep Erdogan and his Azerbaijani and Georgian counterparts Ilham Aliyev and Giorgi Margvelashvili attended the inauguration ceremony in Turkey's Kars region.

Turkey and Azerbaijan will on Tuesday formally begin construction on a new gas pipeline costing over $10 billion which will pump gas from the vast Azerbaijani Shah Deniz 2 field across Anatolia to Turkish and EU consumers.

Energy giant BP signed an agreement on March 13 to acquire a 12 percent stake in the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project (TANAP).

Turkmenistan has signed an outline deal with Turkey to supply gas to a new pipeline that could help Europe reduce its dependence on Russian gas imports.

The two countries struck a so-called framework agreement on Oct. 7 for Turkmenistan, which is keen to diversify exports of its gas to world markets, to supply gas to the proposed Trans-Anatolian natural gas pipeline project (TANAP).

The state-run Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) has inked a $1 billion loan agreement with Turkish state-run lender Vakıfbank and the country’s largest non-state lender İşbank so it can purchase Total’s stake in an Azeri gas project.

Turkey has signed deals to increase its stakes in the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) and the Shah Deniz projects, with a ceremony attended by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, marking another step towards its long-lasting dream of becoming an energy hub.