Azerbaijan, Baku, April 18 / Trend A.Badalova/
Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) very much welcomes the Shah Deniz consortium's decision to commence Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) on the second stage of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz Stage gas condensate field development.
"This is indeed a significant step forward in bringing Caspian gas to Europe to ensure future security of supply," Lisa Givert, Head of Communications at TAP project wrote Trend in an e-mail.
The decision to begin FEED on Shah Deniz Stage 2 project was announced by BP this week. The entry into FEED represents the start of a key phase in the project during which engineering studies will be refined, further wells will be drilled, commercial agreements will be finalised and key construction contracts will commence. Achieving this important milestone allows the consortium to maintain its target for first gas exports around the end of 2017.
During the FEED phase of the project, the Shah Deniz consortium will finalise its selection of export routes across Turkey and into Europe.
According to Givert, TAP remains convinced that it offers the most cost efficient and strategic transportation route for Caspian gas to reach Europe.
TAP is one of the Southern Gas Corridor projects, 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 phase 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 announced TAP a priority route for export of the Azerbaijani gas to Italy.
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 initial pipeline capacity of TAP will be 10 billion cubic metres per year, expandable to 20 billion cubic metres per year.