Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 3
Aygun Badalova - Trend:
The Greek Parliament ratified the Host Government Agreement (HGA) it signed with the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) earlier in June this year, TAP reported on December 3.
The HGA sets out the framework by which the project will be realized and operated on Greek territory. This includes processes related to land easement and acquisition, the implementation of technical, safety, environmental and social standards and permitting.
TAP project is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy and then to Western Europe. The approximately 870 km long pipeline will connect with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) near the Turkish-Greek border at Kipoi, cross Greece and Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Southern Italy. The gas which will be produced in the second phase of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field development, is considered as the main source of the project.
The longest section of the TAP pipeline will be in Greece. The pipeline will start at Kipoi at the Turkish-Greek border, and will cover some 550km entering Albania northwest of Dipotamia.
According to the TAP's report, the pipeline will be one of the largest sources of foreign direct investment in Greece, and is estimated to cost approximately 1.5 billion euro for the Greek section alone.
The initial capacity of the TAP pipeline will be 10 billion cubic meters per year with the possibility of expanding to 20 billion cubic meters per year. TAP shareholders are BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Statoil (20 percent), Fluxys (16 percent), Total (10 percent), E.ON (9 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).
The construction of TAP is planned to start in 2015. It is planned that the pipeline will be ready to transport first gas from the Shah Deniz field to Europe in 2019.