Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 29
Trend:
The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) was not meant as an alternative or direct competitor to Russia's South Stream, Head of TAP's representative office in Italy Giampaolo Russo said in an interview to PRIME Business News Agency.
Russo did not rule out indirect competition of TAP with South Stream because of diversification of gas supplies to Europe when TAP is launched, but the two pipelines can co-exist peacefully, he said.
TAP project was selected by the consortium of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field development as the transportation route to the European markets. The first sales of Azerbaijani gas to Georgia and Turkey are targeted for late 2018, first deliveries to Europe will follow approximately a year later.
The initial capacity of TAP will be 10 billion cubic meters per year, but it can easily be expanded to 20 billion cubic meters per year as the new volumes of gas come on stream. TAP's shareholding is comprised of BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Statoil (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagás (16 percent) and Axpo (five percent).
South Stream pipeline will have a capacity of 63 billion cubic meters and run through the Black Sea to the South and Central Europe, bypassing Ukraine, in order to diversify the natural gas export routes. It is expected that the South Stream will deliver first volumes of gas in late 2015. The pipeline will start working at full designed capacity in 2018.
South Stream project's participants include Gazprom (50 percent), Italian Eni (20 percent), Wintershall (15 percent) and the French EDF (15 percent).