EBRD to discuss TANAP, TAP financing

Riccardo Puliti, managing director for energy at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), said a meeting will be held on Oct. 26 with regard to the $1.5 million loan they plan to invest in the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) projects.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), Puliti gave details regarding plans to invest in the said projects, which will transport natural gas from the Caspian Sea to European countries via Turkey.

Puliti said the EBRD backed the Southern Gas Corridor from the start and provided loans to improve the Shah Deniz-II field and the South Caucasus Pipeline, adding they are currently in the evaluation stage for the financing of the TANAP and TAP projects.

Noting that a final decision has not been made yet, Puliti said that while the package will be worth $1.5 billion, it is too soon to discuss how that amount will be divided between the two projects.

Puliti said the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), which includes Azerbaijan as a member country, will hold an executive board meeting in the Kazakhstan capital of Astana on Oct. 26. "The EITI will hold a meeting to discuss whether Azerbaijan has shown any developments in terms of measures taken regarding corruption, transparency and other important issues," Puliti said, stressing that they were expecting confirmation from the EITI indicating that Azerbaijan has made headway regarding these issues and developments are expected to proceed constructively.

Highlighting that Azerbaijan's development played a key role in determining the terms of the EBRD's financial support for TANAP, Puliti said that if the Azerbaijani government was not showing any signs of development regarding the aforementioned issues, it would be hard to provide the billion-dollar loan. "The same thing goes for TAP as well but this development is extra important for TANAP in which Azerbaijan's national petroleum company SOCAR has more shares," Puliti said.