Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 13 / Trend A. Badalova /
Greece, Italy and Albaina have signed an intergovernmental agreement on the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) in Athens on Wednesday, Capital.gr reported.
The agreement was signed by Foreign Minister of Greece Dimitris Avramopoulos, Albanian Deputy Prime Minister Edmond Haxhinasto and Italian Minister of Economic Development, Corrado Passera.
The agreement was signed in the presence of Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.
According to Samaras, the signing of IGA is a very important step. "We offer our support to a project of strategic importance for Greece and Europe", Samaras said.
In September, 2012 the governments of these three countries confirmed their political support for TAP project by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
TAP project 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 within the second phase of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field development is considered as the main source for TAP.
TAP's initial pipeline capacity will be 10 billion cubic metres per year, but is easily expandable to 20 billion cubic meters per year. TAP's shareholders are Swiss AXPO (42.5 percent), Norway's Statoil (42.5 percent) and German E.ON Ruhrgas (15 percent).
In case of TAP's selection as a final pipeline route to transport Azerbaijani gas to Europe, the construction of the pipeline will start in 2015.
Shah Deniz consortium will make its final decision on the pipeline route in June 2013.