Project Timeline

As an outcome of the feasibility study it was decided to construct the pipeline in two major stages - first to construct the complete new route from Turkish borders to Baumgarten, and second to construct further compressor stations to increase capacity. At the same time, it was decided that construction step I would be technically split into two separate back-to-back construction phases:

The first construction phase, starting in 2010, will cover the planned route between Ankara and Baumgarten, corresponding to the construction of approximately 2,000 km of pipeline. After this phase, the existing pipeline facilities between the Turkish / Georgian and Iranian borders will be used for an interim period of 2 years, in order to link the new pipeline to the Turkish borders. This will enable the project to start operation and marketing of the pipeline to start in 2013 with an initial pipeline capacity up to 8 bcm, while the construction of the rest of the pipeline will be finished in parallel.

The second construction phase will run from 2013 until end 2014 and will consist of the construction of the remaining section between the Turkish border to Georgia resp. Iran and Ankara.

A following construction step II will consist of installation of further compression stations at key points of the pipeline in order to continuously increase the pipeline capacity up to 31 bcm/y.