Turkish and Azeri officials met for discussions on December 15th concerning a project to deliver natural gas from the Shahk Deniz fields in Azerbaijan to Turkey.
The talks in Ankara are scheduled to last three days, and the issue is also expected to be on the agenda when Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze visits Turkey in January. Under the project, Turkey would receive between 2 and 3 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
The gas would be transported through a pipeline from the Shahk Deniz fields in the Caspian via Georgia to Turkey. The project would be developed by a BP Amoco-led consortium and is expected to come online in 2003.
The consortium also includes Turkish Petroleum Co. TPAO, Norway’s Statoil, Azeri state oil company SOCAR, Russia’s LUKoil, TotalFinaElf and Iran’s OIEC.
Yurdakul Yigitguden, Turkish energy ministry undersecretary, indicated that Ankara would like to see a legal agreement between the countries for the project.
He said that: “We accept the gas delivery at the border, so there is no need for a host government agreement, but both parties have a desire to conclude an intergovernmental agreement.”
