Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 12 / Trend A. Badalova /
Striking a deal on gas supplies from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field can allow to take a final investment decision on the project ITGI (Turkey-Greece-Italy) this year, ICIS Heren said referring to the head of the International Gas Infrastructure in the Italian company Edison Elio Ruggeri.
"Making a final investment decision depends on the contracts for gas supplies, Ruggeri, IGI Poseidon chief executive director, said.
"As soon as we settle supplies from Shah Deniz field, we will take a final investment decision," he said.
ITGI pipeline is one of the projects within "Southern Corridor", involving gas supplies from the Caspian region and the Middle East to the EU countries. Azerbaijan is considered as the main source of supply for the projects "Southern Corridor", in particular, the gas produced within the second stage of the development of Shah-Deniz field.
The partners developing Azerbaijani large gas condensate field Shah Deniz plan to sign contracts to sell gas from the second stage of the project development in mid-2011.
"Of course, we are confident in our chances of getting volumes from the Shah Deniz field. We believe that ITGI is the most developed and competitive project within the Southern Corridor," he said.
He said that Edison Company is negotiating to supply 6.4 billion cubic meters a year from the Shah Deniz field to Italy. But the partner of the Italian company - Greek Depa hopes to receive 1.6 billion cubic meters.
IGI Poseidon SA was created by the Italian company Edison and Greek company Depa for the design and construction of the pipeline Greece-Italy, known as Poseidon.
He said that materials and equipment worth 200 million euros necessary for gas pipeline construction are expected to be bought.
ITGI project may enter the operational stage in 2015. Its construction will begin in 2012.
"Nevertheless, the shareholders of the project intend to adjust the time to launch the gas pipeline to the time to start gas supplies from Shah Deniz scheduled for late 2016 - early 2017, he said.