Baku, Azerbaijan, June 2
By Seymur Aliyev - Trend:
The SOCAR company (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan) studies the possibility of participating in interconnector projects laid from the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) via which Azerbaijani gas will be transported to the European markets, a senior representative of SOCAR told reporters June 2.
TAP project is designed to transport gas from the Caspian Sea region to Italy's south through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea and further to Western Europe. The total length of the pipeline will near 870 kilometers.
The initial capacity of TAP will be 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year with the possibility of increasing to 20 billon cubic meters per year.
It is planned to start the pipeline's construction May 16, 2016.
TAP shareholders are: BP - 20 percent, State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) - 20 percent, Statoil - 20 percent, Fluxys - 19 percent, Enagas - 16 percent, Axpo - five percent.
It is expected that IGB will be connected to the Trans-Adriatic pipeline via which the gas from Shah Deniz will be delivered to European markets.
In January 2014, a Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation was signed between TAP and ICGB - the company in charge of the development, financing and construction the IGB. The memorandum aimed at establishing the technical cooperation in order to further develop strategic infrastructure in the region.
The document provides an opportunity for cooperation between the two companies that will work together on the possibility of connecting the pipelines in the vicinity of Komotini (Greece), which will open the way for new supplies of gas to the gas distribution network in Bulgaria, and further to the South-Eastern Europe.
Edited by CN