“TANAP is a continuation of the corridor that Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey have been building since the mid-1990s,” he said. “Now this corridor is gaining a qualitatively new dimension. Therefore, this stage of this major energy corridor project has a special significance for all participants, including for Georgia.”

The former minister stressed that Georgia played an important role in the creation of the TANAP.

“Naturally, the [Georgian] head of state will attend the inauguration ceremony of the next stage of this project,” he said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a phone conversation with his Georgian counterpart Giorgi Margvelashvili invited him to the TANAP opening ceremony to be held June 12 in Turkey’s Eskisehir city.

The launching ceremony of the first stage of the Southern Gas Corridor project was held in Baku on May 29.

The gas from the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field has already gone through the first segment of the Southern Gas Corridor - from the Sangachal terminal to the expanded South Caucasus Pipeline.

The next stage will be commissioning of the TANAP gas pipeline, through which the gas will enter the territory of Turkey and further Europe.

The Southern Gas Corridor, which costs more than $40 billion, is one of the priority projects for the EU and provides for the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe.

At the initial stage, the gas produced within the second phase of development of the Azerbaijani gas condensate field Shah Deniz is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects.

The gas in the second stage of the field development will be exported to Turkey and European markets through the expansion of the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of the TANAP and TAP pipelines.

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