Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 29 /Trend, A.Badalova/
The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project stands on the best position to open Southern gas Corridor, Michael Hoffmann, External Affairs and Communications Director in TAP said in an interview to Trend.
"TAP is the project for now with the capacity for tomorrow," Hoffmann said.
According to him, the Southern Gas Corridor has to be opened very quickly, and TAP is the best option to do this.
"Once the Southern Gas Corridor is opened it will provide many opportunities for upgrading further gas to come through," Hoffmann said.
The Trans Adriatic Pipeline is a natural gas pipeline project. The pipeline will transport gas from the Caspian region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy and further into Western Europe. The project is aimed at enhancing security of supply as well as diversification of gas supplies for the European markets.
The total length of the pipeline is about 800 kilometers.
Hoffmann noted that the project still has full scalability to 20 bcm without any loss in economics, despite having reduced the offshore pipeline from 140 to 110 kilometers.
The initial pipeline capacity will be 10 billion cubic meters per year which is tailor made to the 10bcm from Shah Deniz II.
Hoffman believes that TAP is the only project that provides flexibility to expand to significant volumes.
The gas produced within the second phase of the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz Field is considered to be the main gas source for TAP project. Under the Shah Deniz-2 project, Azerbaijan plans to ship 10 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe.
Hoffmann said that TAP is progressing extremely quickly and is currently ahead of schedule.
The project, according to him, has many advantages, and meets the needs and strategic aims of consumers, as well as producers of gas.
TAP is working extremely hard in the region of South East Europe and has signed a number of agreements with national TSO's and the Ionian Adriatic Pipeline to work on interconnections to these new markets in the region.
"In terms of access to the new markets we have done a lot of work with IAP (Ionian Adriatic gas pipeline project)," Hoffmann said.
According to him, the project is also on the best position from financial point of view - it does not need any subsidies from the EU or any governments. Moreover, the shareholders of the project (E.ON and Statoil) are well known companies and world leaders in pipeline development with the financial capability to back the project.
From this point of view TAP is the best solution to open Southern gas Corridor, Hoffmann believes.
"Once additional gas volumes are available, there will be opportunity for other pipelines to be built," - he said.