Ankara to sign major gas pipeline MOU soon

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ANKARA, Turkey, May 7 (UPI) -- A memorandum of understanding for the 1,240-mile Trans-Anatolian Pipeline should be ratified by the Turkish Parliament in a matter of days, an official said.

Both sides in December signed a memorandum of understanding for the 1,240-mile Trans-Anatolian Pipeline. It will eventually carry natural gas from the BP-controlled Shah Deniz field in the Azeri waters of the Caspian Sea.

A source in the Turkish Legislature told the region's Trend news service Monday that "the exact date is unknown yet, but in the coming days, a memorandum will be approved by the Parliament."

The project, dubbed TANAP, could eventually link to Nabucco West, a scaled-down version of the larger $10.4 billion proposal, or BP's planned South East Europe Pipeline from the Turkish border.

Project partners expect to have TANAP built before Shah Deniz starts production by 2017. Shah Deniz partners will choose between SEEP and Nabucco West by the end of June.

A 5.8-magnitude earthquake was reported Monday in Azerbaijan. Azeri officials said there were few reports of damage to energy infrastructure in the area, including the 1,099-mile long Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.