Verging on megaproject status, the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) is a multi-billion dollar pipeline project that aims to transport natural gas from the Caspian Sea to Turkey and Europe. Naturally, the legal support of such a complex and high profile endeavour, with a large number of important and powerful stakeholders, is required to be comprehensive and thorough. Zeynep Gazali Yilmazer is director of legal affairs for the project, and is ideally placed to take on the demanding responsibilities of the role. Prior to working for TANAP, she was a senior legal counsel with the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) a related company in the energy sector that provided her with invaluable transferable skills and knowledge of the energy sector that have informed her current strategies. Looking back fondly on her career, Yilmazer says, ‘the three most exciting and intriguing projects during my career have defiantly been the Petlim Port project, the SOCAR Gas project and, most of all, the TANAP project which is a $11bn [valued] pipeline project. These projects have allowed me to gain an extensive insight into the energy sector both in Turkey and in the world by providing an opportunity to experience the commencing, finalisation and execution of a project’. In addition to supervising and drafting a plethora of engineering, procurement and construction contracts, she has also taken the lead in the oversight and management of an array of shareholder and project financing agreements with such institutions as the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Asian Infrastructure and Investment Bank (AIIB). On top of this, she plays an integral role on the main operational agreements of the project such as gas transportation agreements and operation agreements with shippers, interconnection agreements with the transmission system operators at the Turkish border in Georgia and Greece and the drafting and finalisation of engineering and procurement contracts regarding the construction stage of the project. Before moving in-house to the energy sector, Yilmazer enjoyed five successful years in private practice, first at law firm DLA Piper then at Güzeldere Law Firm.