The Azerbaijani-Turkish Trans-Anatolia gas pipeline project (TANAP) has become the basic component of the EU-backed Southern Corridor for Caspian gas to Europe. Shortly after the signing of the Azerbaijan-Turkey memorandum of understanding (MOU on December 26, 2011), the European Commission incorporated TANAP into the planning for the Southern Corridor.
For their part, Shah Deniz gas producers in Azerbaijan need to expand the capacity of the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP), which those same producers own and operate. That line runs 442 kilometers through Azerbaijan and 248 km through Georgia since 2006. It runs parallel to the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, up to the Turkish border where SCP links up with Turkey's pipeline system. (The South Caucasus Pipeline is also known as Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline, although the SCP stops at the point of connection with the Turkish system on the Georgian-Turkish border).
The TANAP project, however, presupposes a link-up in Turkey with the proposed Trans-Anatolia pipeline, not with the existing Turkish system. Unlike the existing Turkish system, TANAP would be built as a dedicated pipeline for Azerbaijani gas exports (and potentially Turkmen gas transit), majority-owned and operated by Azerbaijan in partnership with Turkey on Turkish territory. SCP can be the connecting link between Azerbaijan and TANAP.
