Turkey and the Southern Corridor after TAP’s Selection as the Main Export Route for Caspian Gas

In late June, the consortium developing Azerbaijan’s offshore Shah Deniz natural gas reserves in the Caspian Sea chose the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline project (TAP) to transport Azerbaijani gas to European markets from the Turkish border onwards. With this decision, TAP’s rival, Nabucco-West, which was for a long time considered the crown-jewel of the EU’s Southern Corridor, might come to an effective end. Having advocated Nabucco as a strategic priority since the project’s introduction in the early-1990s, and participated in it as an equal stakeholder, Turkey is adjusting its policies to the dramatically transformed reality on the ground.