Baku, Azerbaijan, May 15
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
The supply of Russian gas to Europe via the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) would benefit Azerbaijan and its Shah Deniz partners in economic terms, since with higher volumes TAP would have a lower tariff for Azerbaijani gas, energy expert Laurent Rusescas told Trend.
He was commenting on the statement earlier made by deputy CEO of Russia’s Gazprom Alexander Medvedev who said that the company is discussing the possibility of using Poseidon and TAP to export gas to Europe.
“TAP has a regulatory requirement in its agreements with the EU to expand from 10 billion cubic meters per year up to 20 billion cubic meters per year if shippers come with firm commitments to use the additional capacity,” said Rusescas. “If Gazprom seeks to use this capacity, it should be able to achieve this, and thus to ship 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year to Italy via TAP.”
It would not make a big difference for EU energy security if one assumes that Gazprom volumes delivered to Italy via TurkStream and TAP would not represent additional volumes sold into the EU but simply a re-routing of gas already being supplied via existing pipelines through Ukraine, Slovakia, and onward, the expert believes.
TAP is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor, which is one of the priority energy projects for the European Union. The project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz Stage 2 to the EU countries.
The pipeline will connect to the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) on the Turkish-Greek border, run through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Italy’s south.
TAP will be 878 kilometers in length (Greece 550 kilometers, Albania 215 kilometers, Adriatic Sea 105 kilometers, and Italy 8 kilometers).
TAP’s shareholding is comprised of BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Snam S.p.A. (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagás (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).
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