Six Turkish companies and a Chinese firmed signed contracts on Tuesday to supply 1.8 million metric tons of steel pipes for construction of the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP). 

Turkey's Mannesmann-Noksel-Erciyas and Umran-Emek consortiums, and Toscelik Profil ve Sac Endustrisi company, along with Chinese contractor Baosteel Europe will supply the pipes for the TANAP project.

The pipeline will transport gas from the Shah Deniz field in Azerbaijan to Europe via Turkey, with an initial capacity of 16 billion cubic meters a year.

At an estimated cost of $10-$11 billion, the pipeline is expected to start transporting gas to Turkey in 2018 and Europe in 2019.

Government representatives attending the signing ceremony on Tuesday included Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish prime minister; Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz; Azerbaijan's Energy Minister Natig Aliyev; and Rovnag Abdullayev, president of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan.