Azerbaijan, Baku, July 19 / Trend, A. Taghiyeva /
TAP and TANAP gas pipeline projects are a symbol of peace and friendship between Turkey and Greece, Greek Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos said at a joint news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, TRT Haber TV channel reported today.
According to him, it is important for Greece, as well as for other European countries to diversify their energy sources and supply lines.
"Europe's demand for natural gas is growing and it will hit 7 quadrillion cubic meters in the coming years," Venizelos added.
The Turkish Foreign Minister stressed that the TAP project will be an important action in the development of cooperation between Greece and Turkey, in particular, in the energy sector.
At the end of June the consortium of the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz Field, the selection of TAP as the transit route to Europe was announced. Another pipeline which was 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.
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 per cent), Norway's Statoil (42.5 per cent) and E.ON Ruhrgas of Germany (15 per cent).
The TANAP project envisages gas transportation from the Shah Deniz field to Europe via Turkey. The initial capacity of the pipeline is expected to reach 16 billion cubic meters per year. Around six billion cubic meters will be delivered to Turkey and the rest to Europe.