Azerbaijan, Baku, April 5 / Trend A.Badalova /
The Albanian Ministry of Economy, Trade and Energy and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) signed on Friday the Host Government Agreement (HGA), formally agreeing the terms of engagement for the Southern Gas Corridor pipeline's future delivery, TAP reported.
According to the report, the HGA sets out the regulations by which the project will be realised and operated on Albanian territory. This includes processes on land easement and acquisition, the implementation of technical, safety environmental and social standards and permitting regulations.
Upon ratification by the national parliament in the coming weeks, the HGA will become a fully binding law, TAP said.
According to TAP's Managing Director Kjetil Tungland, the signing of the HGA is another important milestone in TAP project's delivery, demonstrating again TAP's readiness to meet the Shah Deniz Consortium's timetable.
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 meters per year, but is easily expandable to 20 billion cubic meters 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).
The Albanian section of the pipeline will start at Bilisht Qendër in the Korça region at the Albanian-Greek border, and will stretch some 209km to the coastal area north of Fier where it will join the Adriatic. The Albanian offshore section will be 60km in length.
In case of choosing TAP as a final pipeline route to transport Azerbaijani gas to Europe, the construction of the pipeline will start in 2015. The final decision on the European pipeline is expected to be made by end of June 2013.