Tbilisi, Georgia, April 23
By Nana Kirtzkhalia - Trend:
Georgian Energy Minister Kakha Kaladze has held a meeting with the representatives of the shareholding companies of the Trans Adriatic gas pipeline project (TAP), Georgian Energy Ministry told Trend on April 23.
During the meeting, the parties discussed the prospects for implementation of the project in cooperation with Georgia.
Chairman of the Board of Directors of the consortium for construction of the TAP and the Vice-President of the Statoil company, Kjetil Tungland, the office head of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) in Georgia, Mahir Mammadov, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Georgia, Azer Huseyn and others attended the meeting, according to the Georgian ministry.
The consortium of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field development has chosen the TAP project as a gas transportation route to the European markets.
TAP project is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy and then to Western Europe.
The final investment decision was made on the second phase of the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz offshore gas and condensate field's development on December 17, 2013. Gas from the field will go in the first instance to the European marketplace.
The gas to be produced within the second phase of the field's development will be exported to Turkey and to European markets by means of expanding the South Caucasus Pipeline and construction of the Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).
The initial capacity of the TAP pipeline will be 10 billion cubic meters per year with the possibility of expanding to 20 billion cubic meters per year. TAP shareholders are BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Statoil (20 percent), Fluxys (16 percent), Total (10 percent), E.ON (9 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).
Translated by L.Z.
Edited by C.N.