Azerbaijan, Baku, Aug. 8 / Trend A. Badalova /
Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) makes progress in discussions with Italian and Greek governments on the project's support, TAP External Affairs and Communications Director Michael Hoffmann told Trend on Wednesday.
Greece and Italian governments reached an agreement to support TAP project, 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, Reuters reported with reference to Greece Energy Ministry's statement.
According to the statement, Greek Deputy Energy Minister Makis Papageorgiou and his Italian counterpart reached a "close cooperation agreement" to jointly support the pipeline that would run through their countries.
"The Greek-Italian agreement confirms the progress we have been making in discussions with the Italian and Greek authorities," Hoffmann said.
Earlier this year Shah Deniz consortium made TAP a priority route for export of Azerbaijani gas to Italy.
TAP's initial pipeline capacity will be 10 billion cubic metres per year, expandable to 20 billion cubic metres per year. TAP's shareholders are EGL of Switzerland (42.5 percent), Norway's Statoil (42.5 percent) and E.ON Ruhrgas of Germany (15 percent).
Currently, the Shah Deniz consortium considers two options to deliver its gas to Europe -Nabucco West and TAP. The final decision on a pipeline route will be made in 2013.