Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 2
By Aygun Badalova - Trend:
Trans Adriatic Pipeline's (TAP) routing can facilitate connections to some infrastructure projects to supply gas to several South Eastern European countries.
Lisa Givert, TAP Head of Communications told Trend that TAP is not responsible for building any physical infrastructure into South East Europe.
"However, TAP is able to facilitate connections to several planned infrastructure projects such as the Ionian-Adriatic Pipeline (IAP) and Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) for example," she said.
Givert mentioned that in 2011 TAP has entered into multiple Memoranda of Understanding and Cooperation (MoUC) with the developers of the proposed Ionian Adriatic Pipeline (IAP): the Croatian gas system operator Plinacro, Bosnian-Herzegovinian gas company BH-Gas, Slovenian Geoplin Plinovodi.
"This enables collaboration on technical interfaces so that when the IAP project is built, it could connect potentially to TAP," Givert said.
TAP will transport natural gas from the giant Shah Deniz II field in Azerbaijan to Europe. The 878 km long pipeline will connect with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) at the Turkish-Greek border at Kipoi, cross Greece and Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Southern Italy.
TAP's shareholding is comprised of BP (20%), SOCAR (20%), Statoil (20%), Fluxys (19%), Enagás (16%) and Axpo (5%).
TAP's initial capacity will be 10 billion cubic meters per year, expandable to 20 billion cubic meters per year.
IAP pipeline with a length of around 516 kilometers will be connected to TAP in the city of Fier in Albania. The pipeline will pass through Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and end in the city of Split in Croatia, where it will be connected to the existing gas distribution system of the country. From Croatia, the gas can go to Hungary and other countries of Central and Western Europe.
The capacity of the IAP will be five billion cubic meters per year. The pipeline will be capable carry out reverse supply.