Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 29 / Trend A.Badalova/
Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) does not see any need to combine strengths with any other project, TAP Managing Director Kjetil Tungland said in an interview with EurActiv.
"I don't feel such need, because now TAP is chosen on the basis of its own strengths and on the strengths of its shareholders," Tungland said.
TAP is one of the Southern Gas Corridor projects, which 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. Gas to be produced during the second stage of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field development is considered as the main source for TAP.
Earlier this month Shah Deniz consortium excluded another project - ITGI from the list of those being considered to export Azerbaijani gas to the European countries, and made TAP a priority route for export of Azerbaijani gas to Italy. The decision was made in accordance with the previously announced criteria for the export of gas (10 billion cubic meters) under the Shah-Deniz-2 project to the European countries.
Tungland stressed that Shah Deniz has ranked the competing projects according to the eight selection criteria, which include assessing the projects based on their merits as commercial concept, technical capability, operational capability and financial capability. "All these elements have been considered and based on this, TAP was chosen," he said.
"We don't see that we should dilute Shah Deniz' decision by joining forces with ITGI, that would be like taking several steps backwards, Tungland added. We consider the Shah Deniz decision as final. It excludes ITGI, and invites TAP into exclusive negotiations with Shah Deniz, with the intention of reaching final agreement with them."
TAP's shareholders are EGL of Switzerland (42.5 percent), Norway's Statoil (42.5 percent) and E.ON Ruhrgas of Germany (15 percent).
The total length of TAP is about 800 kilometers. The initial pipeline capacity of TAP will be 10 billion cubic metres per year, expandable to 20 billion cubic metres per year.