Turkey will not abandon the TANAP project, the country’s ministry of energy and natural resources told Trend on Apr. 10.

The statement came after a remark made Apr. 9 by Taner Yildiz, the Turkish minister of energy and natural resources, who said that in case of a profitable commercial offer, Turkey may sell a part of its shares in the TANAP.

The ministry reiterated to Trend that the matter here rests in only a possible partial sale of shares in TANAP in case of a profitable commercial proposal.

TANAP is meant to transport gas of Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz field from the Georgian-Turkish border to the western borders of Turkey.

TANAP’s initial capacity is expected to be 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Around six billion cubic meters of this gas will be delivered to Turkey and the rest to Europe.

Turkey will receive gas in 2018, and after the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) is constructed, the gas will be delivered to Europe in early 2020.

BP and the TANAP consortium signed March 13 a shareholder agreement, according to which BP will become one of the shareholders of TANAP.

The agreement is one of the main documents for BP’s ownership of a stake in the TANAP project. Following the completion of a legal implementation procedure, TANAP’s shareholders list will be as follows: SOCAR – 58 percent, Botas – 30 percent and BP – 12 percent.

The project’s cost is estimated at $10 to $11 billion.