Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 25 /Trend A. Tagiyeva/
The final route of gas supply will be determined by Shah Deniz consortium after consideration of proposals of Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and Nabucco, Turkish minister of energetics and natual resources Taner Yildiz reported to Anadolu agency on Tuesday.
In his words, Turkey supports both projects. The choice will be made by Shah Deniz consortium, Yildiz noted.
The Minister also noted that the realization of the project on transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe will not affect energy cooperation of Turkey with other countries.
TAP project is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy and further into Western Europe.
TAP's initial pipeline capacity will be 10 billion cubic metres per year, expandable to 20 billion cubic metres per year. TAP's shareholders are EGL of Switzerland (42.5 percent), Norway's Statoil (42.5 percent) and E.ON Ruhrgas of Germany (15 percent).
Earlier this year Shah Deniz consortium made TAP a priority route for export of Azerbaijani gas to Italy.
Currently, the Shah Deniz consortium considers two options to deliver its gas to Europe -TAP and Nabucco West..
Later Nabucco West consortium was chosen as the only project of pipeline for supply of the gas, extracted during second stage of Shah Deniz field's development, to Central Europe. The final decision on a pipeline route will be made in 2013.
Nabucco West is a short-cut version of Nabucco project, which envisages construction of the pipeline from Turkish-Bulgarian border to Austria. The project's current shareholders are Bulgarian Energy Holding, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas, Austrian OMV, German RWE and Hungary's FGSZ.