Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 3
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
The TAP (Trans Adriatic Pipeline) consortium appears to have settled for a former military base on the northwestern outskirts of Thessaloniki, in the Menemeni area, to develop its logistics center, from where pipelines will be distributed to construct the infrastructure project's Greek segment, the Greek media said Nov. 3.
The location, formerly known as the Gonos military base, is directly connected by a railway line to Thessaloniki port.
The logistics center will be developed over a 10-hectare section of the former military base's total expanse, measuring 60 hectares and owned by GAIAOSE, a state-run company managing railway-linked property that is also active in renewable energy source (RES) production, according to the message.
The property's other 50 hectares are expected to be developed as a trading facility for prospective use by Thessaloniki port.
Another military base in the wider area, the Kakiousis unit, was also considered for TAP's logistics center, but the site in Menemeni was favored because of its railway connection to Thessaloniki port.
In the past, the former Menemeni military base was used to store military equipment, including ammunition, which will need to be cleared out before the property is handed over to the TAP consortium.
As a first stage, twenty hectares of the property will be cleared of all military equipment, ten hectares of which are planned to be used by TAP. The entire property is expected to be cleared away within 2016, the message said.
TAP is meant to transport gas from Shah Deniz 2, an Azerbaijani gas condensate field, to the EU.
The approximately 870-km long pipeline will connect with the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) at the Turkish-Greek border at Kipoi, cross Greece and Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in southern Italy.
TAP's construction is expected to start in 2016. Its initial capacity will be 10 billion cubic meters per year, expandable to 20 billion cubic meters per year.
The first gas as part of the Shah Deniz 2 project will be transported to Europe via TAP in early 2020.
TAP's shareholding is comprised of BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Statoil (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagas (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).
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