The 19 kilometer-long sea section - the most important leg of the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline Project (TANAP), which will carry Azeri natural gas to Europe via Turkey - is being built in the Marmara Sea.
Natural gas pipes are being laid at the bottom of the sea by a specially equipped vessel. The 153-meter-long Panamanian vessel, named "Sapurakencana 1200" and weighing 32,504 gross tons, has started laying pipes on the shore of Kemer village in the district of Biga in Çanakkale Province. Thus, the first sea connection of TANAP on land has started.
When the natural gas pipeline that will pass 19 kilometers though the Sea of Marmara reaches Tekirdağ, Azerbaijan's natural gas will have entered Europe. However, Azeri natural gas will completely reach European countries, its final destination, when the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which forms the third leg of the project and has a length of approximately 500 kilometers, is completed.
The foundations of TANAP were held in Kars on March 17, 2015, in a ceremony attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Azeri and Georgian counterparts. Starting from Ardahan on the border of Georgia, the 1.850-kilometer-long TANAP will reach İpsala in Edirne Province on the Greek border after passing through 20 cities in Turkey.
