He was addressing a groundbreaking ceremony for the TANAP project in Turkey’s Kars province, the TRT Haber news channel reported.
Erdogan said TANAP isn’t an alternative to any other energy project and therefore the project itself has no alternatives.
He also added that TANAP is a project of peace and progress.
The official groundbreaking ceremony for TANAP was held March 17 in the Turkish province of Kars.
The ceremony was attended by the presidents of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia, Ilham Aliyev, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Giorgi Margvelashvili, as well as other officials.
The presidents pressed a symbolic button, starting the construction. Afterwards the first pipe was put in the pipeline’s trench.
TANAP envisages the transportation of 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 reach 16 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Around six billion cubic meters of this gas will be delivered to Turkey and the rest of the volume to Europe.
Turkey will obtain gas in 2018. The gas will be supplied to Europe in early 2020 after the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) is constructed.
The project’s estimated cost is $10 billion to $11 billion.
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