Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 14 / Trend A.Badalova/
The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) would welcome Greek and Italina partners in the project, TAP Managing Director Kjetil Tungland said in an interview with Bloomberg.
"TAP shareholders are still welcoming new partners and as TAP management we feel it would be good to have Italian and Greek partners," Tungland said.
However, he declined to comment on whether TAP shareholders were in discussions with Greek Depa SA and Italian Enel.
Earlier Reuters reported with the reference to Enel CEO Fulvio Conti, that the company is holding discussions with TAP to acquire a stake in the project.
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 metres per year. TAP's shareholders are AXPO of Switzerland (42.5 percent), Norway's Statoil (42.5 percent) and E.ON Ruhrgas of Germany (15 percent).
In case of selection of TAP 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.
On Wednesday Greece, Italy and Albaina signed in Athens an Intergovernemntal agreement (IGA) on TAP.