* Total plans to sell 10 pct stake in Shah Deniz II -sources
* Statoil has completed sale of 10 pct stake
* Europe seeks alternative gas supplies
By Margarita Antidze
TBILISI, May 7 (Reuters) - Turkey's energy minister said onWednesday he expected progress this month in a deal betweenFrance's Total and Turkish pipeline firm Botas inAzerbaijan's Shah Deniz II natural gas project.
Sources with knowledge of the matter said in February thatTotal planned to sell its 10 percent stake in the Shah Deniz IIgas field.
"We're expecting some developments in respect with this dealthis month," Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told reporterson Wednesday without providing details.
Norway's Statoil said on Tuesday that it completedthe sale of a 10 percent stake in Shah Deniz II and the SouthCaucasus Pipeline for a consideration of $1.45 billion.
It sold a 3.33 percent stake to BP, the project'stechnical operator, and a 6.67 percent stake to Azeri state oilcompany SOCAR while retaining a 15.5 percent stake.
Azerbaijan's biggest gas field, Shah Deniz is beingdeveloped by consortium partners BP, Statoil, SOCAR andothers.
Shah Deniz I has been pumping gas since 2006 and has anannual production capacity of about 10 billion cubic metres(bcm) of natural gas.
The next phase, Shah Deniz II, is important for Europe as analternative to gas from Russia's Gazprom. It isexpected to produce 16 bcm of gas per year from around 2019,with 10 bcm earmarked for Europe and 6 bcm for Turkey.
RUSSIAN GAS AND EUROPE
Yildiz said that the crisis in Ukraine, which is a transitroute for Russian gas supplies to Europe, created a new impetusfor countries to think about alternative supplies.
"Norway, for example, will start delivering more gas (toother European countries) at some point than Russia does rightnow," he said.
"What we are also trying to do right now is putting effortsto speed up projects such as TANAP, which is becoming more andmore important."
The Trans-Anatolian natural gas pipeline project (TANAP)will run from the Turkish-Georgian border to Turkey's borderswith Bulgaria and Greece. The preliminary cost has beenestimated at $20 billion.
Yildiz said construction was expected to be completed by theend of 2018 in order to start deliveries of gas from Shah DenizII in 2019. (Reporting by Margarita Antidze; editing by Jason Neely)