Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10
By Maksim Tsurkov - Trend:
SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) plans to announce a tender to find a company to conduct a feasibility study on Albania's gas infrastructure plan and assess the gas infrastructure of this country, advisor to SOCAR president Murad Heydarov told Reuters March 10.
"SOCAR will announce this tender in the next three months," Heydarov said. "We should draft the feasibility study before the end of 2015, and if this project is considered effective, we will start Albania's gasification project in March next year."
Heydarov estimated the project's cost at "several hundred million dollars".
SOCAR expressed interest in 2014 to participate in the process of supplying gas to Albania. The company already has experience in organizing supply and management of gas distribution networks in Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Baku and Tirana signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in December 2014 on cooperation in the development of a master plan for gas supply to Albania.
SOCAR is preparing to study investment opportunities in Albania, SOCAR's high-ranking representative said in January 2015.
The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority energy projects for the EU. The project is aimed at diversification of routes and sources of energy supply and thereby increase the EU's energy security. It envisages the delivery of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas and condensate field to Europe.
As part of the second stage of the field development, gas will be exported to Turkey and European markets by expanding the South Caucasus gas pipeline and the construction of Trans-Anatolian (TANAP) and Trans-Adriatic (TAP) gas pipelines.
The first volume of gas from the Shah Deniz-2 will be delivered to Turkey in 2018 and Europe in 2019.
---
follow the author on Twitter: @MaksimTsurkov