Azerbaijan, Baku, May 15 / Trend, E. Ismayilov /
The final decision on choosing the route of Azerbaijani gas supplies to Europe will be made by late June 2013, SOCAR chief Rovnag Abdullayev told journalists today.
He added that at present, experts are evaluating the proposals. According to the current estimates, a final decision of choosing the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) or the Nabucco West gas pipeline will be made by the end of next month.
"At present, work is underway to solve all problems by the time a final investment decision is made in late 2013," Abdullayev said.
It is expected that a final investment decision on the second phase of developing Azerbaijani gas condensate "Shah Deniz" field will be made in late 2013.
The consortium of the two gas pipelines offered to carry 10 bcm of Azerbaijani gas a year to different markets in Central and Southern Europe. The Shah Deniz consortium is currently finalizing the assessment of these proposals.
"The Southern Gas Corridor" is one of EU priority energy projects on diversifying the routes and sources of energy supplies.
TAP and Nabucco West, are currently competing over transportation of Azerbaijani gas to the European markets. The gas which will be produced within the second stage of development of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field is considered the main source for these pipeline projects.
Nabucco West would require the construction of 1,300 kilometers of the pipeline (Bulgaria - 412 km, Romania - 469 km, Hungary - 384 km, Austria - 47 km) from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to Baumgarten in Austria.
The TAP project is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to the south of Italy, and further to Western Europe. TAP's initial pipeline capacity will be 10 billion cubic meters per year, but it is easily expandable to 20 billion cubic meters per year. TAP's shareholders are Switzerland's AXPO (42.5 percent), Norway's Statoil (42.5 percent) and Germany's E.ON Ruhrgas (15 percent).