Azerbaijan, Baku, 1 July / Trend/
Swiss Axpo, which is one of three shareholders in the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), could reduce its stake in the project, Reuters reported with the reference to Axpo Chief Executive Heinz Karrer.
"We could lower our stake from currently 42.5 percent to a single-digit participation," Karrer told Swiss Sunday newspaper SonntagsZeitung. He said that it could be done in order to limit the company's exposure to risks in the gas market.
Karrer said that if Axpo and its partners do not find investors to finance construction of the pipeline and have to pay for it themselves, Axpo will have to inject "a low three-digit million amount.
Last week the consortium of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field development officially announced the selection of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) as the route to transport its gas to Europe.
Another pipeline vying for Azerbaijani gas transportation to Europe was Nabucco West.
The 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. Gas which will be produced during the second stage of Shah Deniz field development is considered as the main source for the project.
The TAP route will be approximately 870 kilometers in length (Greece 550 km; Albania 210 km; offshore Adriatic Sea 15km; Italy 5 km).
TAP's initial pipeline capacity will be 10 billion cubic meters per year, but it will be 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 construction of TAP is expected to start in 2015.