Azerbaijan, Baku, May 2 / Trend A.Badalova /
The Consortium of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field development has begun evaluating binding transportation offers from Nabucco West and TAP (Trans Adriatic Pipeline) consortia, offering to carry Azerbaijani gas into Europe, BP Azerbaijan reported on Thursday.
According to the report, this represents another important milestone in the realisation of the Southern Gas Corridor.
The two consortia, Nabucco Gas Pipeline International and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), have been in extensive negotiations with the Shah Deniz consortium following delivery of their initial gas transportation offers at the end of March 2013. Those offers have now been approved by their shareholders and have become final and binding,the report said.
According to the report, furthermore, the consortium also received gas sales offers for more than 30 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas a year from more than 15 different gas buyers across Europe. The gas sales offers will be considered alongside the transportation offers to determine the commerciality of the pipeline options and the respective markets.
Nabucco Gas Pipeline International and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) are offering to carry 10 bcm of gas a year to different markets in Central and Southern Europe. The Shah Deniz consortium is currently finalising its assessment of these offers.
Nabucco West is a short-cut version of Nabucco project, which provides for the construction of the pipeline from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to Austria. The project is proposed to connect with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) at the Turkish-Bulgarian border, transiting Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania to the Central European Gas Hub in Baumgarten, Austria.
The project's current shareholders are Bulgarian Energy Holding, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas, Austrian OMV and Hungary's FGSZ.
TAP project is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to the south of Italy, and further to Western Europe. TAP's initial pipeline capacity will be 10 billion cubic meters per year, but it is easily expandable to 20 billion cubic meters per year. TAP's shareholders are Switzerland's AXPO (42.5 percent), Norway's Statoil (42.5 percent) and Germany's E.ON Ruhrgas of (15 percent).