TANAP leads World Bank's list of TOP-10 fossil fuel projects

The Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP), which transports Azerbaijani gas through Türkiye to Southern Europe, has topped the list of 10 fossil fuel projects promoted by the World Bank Group (WB).

The confirmation finds itself in WB’s latest Big Shift Global report, according to Report.

The report analyzes the WB's financial flows over recent years and identifies the top 10 fossil fuel projects moving forward with the help of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

According to the report, the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), part of the World Bank Group, provided TANAP with $1.1 billion in loan guarantees to protect investors in 2018. The implementation of this project will triple the export of gas from Azerbaijan. A 15-year guarantee was provided on loans from AKA Bank, Citi, Credit Agricole CIB, ING, LBBW, Santander and Societe Generale.

Another example is a $288 million loan issued in 2019 by the International Finance Corporation (IFC, a division of the WB Group) for a gas-fired power plant and an LNG import terminal in the port of Asú (Brazil). Another example is a $135 million loan to Pan American Energy in 2019, an oil company partly owned by bp, to expand a refinery outside of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

In the financial year 2022, the WB provided a record $31.7 billion in climate-related investments to help communities around the world respond to the climate crisis and build a safer and cleaner future. In the fiscal year 2021, the WB (structural divisions of the IBRD and IDA) did not finance new types of fossil fuels. The World Bank Group stopped investing in oil and gas exploration and production in 2019.

However, the report does not mention current funding for existing fossil fuel combustion projects, namely the expansion of a gas storage facility in Türkiye, for which the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development is providing a loan of $600 million. The IBRD will allocate money for the project until October 2024.

Natural gas produced from the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field is transported to Türkiye. Volumes of natural gas are supplied to the Turkish market through the South Caucasus pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum) and TANAP. The first gas through the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline entered the Turkish market in 2007. Commercial gas supplies to Türkiye through TANAP began on June 30, 2018.

Within the framework of the Southern Gas Corridor project, Azerbaijani "blue fuel" is supplied to the Turkish market through TANAP, and to the European market through TAP.