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Serbia’s joining TAP to ensure diversification - expert

Oil&Gas Materials 24 May 2017 12:10 (UTC +04:00)
Serbia’s joining the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) would provide diversification of energy supply to the country.
Serbia’s joining TAP to ensure diversification - expert

Baku, Azerbaijan, May 24

By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:

Serbia’s joining the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) would provide diversification of energy supply to the country, Professor Jonathan Stern, distinguished research fellow at Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, told Trend.

Regarding the prospects for the country’s joining the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project, the expert noted that this would make no contribution to diversification.

“The question would be: does Serbia have the finance to build connections to either Turkish Stream 2 or TAP? My guess would be no, because the Serbian market is not large enough to warrant a special pipeline link to be created,” said Stern. “This means that Serbia has to hope that a pipeline will be routed through its territory without any financial contribution.”

As for the possibility of Russian gas flow through TAP, the expert said that this will depend on a) Turkish Stream 2 being built and gas from that pipeline being accepted by the EU regulatory authorities and then b) whether transportation through TAP would be lower cost than building the ITGI (Interconnector Turkey–Greece–Italy) pipeline.

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).

Russia and Turkey signed an intergovernmental agreement October 10 on the implementation of the Turkish Stream project.

The agreement envisages construction of two branches of the main gas pipeline under the Black Sea, the capacity of each branch being 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas.

One branch is meant to supply gas directly to the Turkish market and the other for the supply of gas by transit through Turkey to Europe.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn

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