Turkey expects progress this month over Total-Botas Azeri gas deal

* Total (NYSE: TOT - news) plans to sell 10 pct stake in Shah Deniz II -sources

* Statoil (Xetra: DNQ.DE - news) has completed sale of 10 pct stake

* Europe seeks alternative gas supplies

By Margarita Antidze

TBILISI, May 7 (Reuters) - Turkey's energy minister said on Wednesday he expected progress this month in a deal between France's Total and Turkish pipeline firm Botas in Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz II natural gas project.

Sources with knowledge of the matter said in February that Total planned to sell its 10 percent stake in the Shah Deniz II gas field.

"We're expecting some developments in respect with this deal this month," Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told reporters on Wednesday without providing details.

Norway's Statoil said on Tuesday that it completed the sale of a 10 percent stake in Shah Deniz II and the South Caucasus Pipeline for a consideration of $1.45 billion.

It sold a 3.33 percent stake to BP (LSE: BP.L - news) , the project's technical operator, and a 6.67 percent stake to Azeri state oil company SOCAR while retaining a 15.5 percent stake.

Azerbaijan's biggest gas field, Shah Deniz is being developed by consortium partners BP, Statoil, SOCAR and others.

Shah Deniz I has been pumping gas since 2006 and has an annual production capacity of about 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas.

The next phase, Shah Deniz II, is important for Europe as an alternative to gas from Russia's Gazprom (MCX: GAZP.ME - news) . It is expected 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 transit route for Russian gas supplies to Europe, created a new impetus for countries to think about alternative supplies.

"Norway, for example, will start delivering more gas (to other European countries) at some point than Russia does right now," he said.

"What we are also trying to do right now is putting efforts to speed up projects such as TANAP, which is becoming more and more important."

The Trans-Anatolian natural gas pipeline project (TANAP) will run from the Turkish-Georgian border to Turkey's borders with Bulgaria and Greece. The preliminary cost has been estimated at $20 billion.

Yildiz said construction was expected to be completed by the end of 2018 in order to start deliveries of gas from Shah Deniz II in 2019. (Reporting by Margarita Antidze; editing by Jason Neely)