The 16 bcm/year Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) gas interconnection project has started operations and will begin to ship natural gas from the Shah Deniz 2 gas field in Azerbaijan to Turkey and later to Europe. The 16 bcm/year gas pipeline is aimed at delivering 6 bcm/year of gas from Azerbaijan to the Turkish market and 10 bcm/year to Europe. Commercial gas shipping from the Shah Deniz field has started while BOTAŞ will start supplying gas from the Eskişehir section as of 1 July 2018. Turkey currently imports 6.6 bcm/year of gas from Azerbaijan via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline and the TANAP project will bring this amount to 12.6 bcm/year. The European part of the project is expected to become operational in 2020.
The Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) holds a 58% interest in TANAP (of which 7% have been transferred to Azerbaijan's state-run oil company SOCAR), while Turkey's Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAŞ) and BP own 30% and 12%, respectively. The US$8.5bn (€7.2bn) project received a €932m financing package from the European Investment Bank in March 2018. As a key component of the Southern Gas Corridor, it aims at improving the European gas supply security and has also secured funds from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the World Bank and Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank (AIIB).