Energy giant BP PLC (BP) is looking to buy a 12% stake in the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline, in yet another move showing the company's determination to get a grip on the whole route expected to bring the first Caspian natural gas ever to Europe before the end of the decade.

"BP received a formal offer from (Azerbaijan's state oil company) Socar for a 12% stake," Al Cook, BP's vice president for the development of Shah Deniz, the giant gas field offshore Azerbaijan in the Caspian, told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview this week.

"We want to have enough equity in the Shah Deniz (gas field) project's chain of platforms, pump-stations and pipelines to ensure that the schedule and capacity of all these projects are aligned," he said.

Tanap--whose main shareholder is expected to remain Socar--would run across Turkey and carry the gas to the border with Europe , from where it would then go to Italy or to the Balkans and Austria .

Mr. Cook also said that BP is negotiating to acquire a stake in the Nabucco West pipeline, one of two projects that are competing to carry the gas through Europe .

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