Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept.6
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
The next meeting of the Project Management Unit for the Ionian-Adriatic Pipeline (IAP) project will be held in Tirana, Albania, Sept.8, Zarko Djuranovic, Director of Energy and Consulting Department at Montenegro Bonus company, told Trend Sept.6.
Montenegro Bonus is one of the particpants of the Project Management Unit for IAP.
Djuranovic recalled that in August 2016, ministries in charge for energy of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro signed a Memorandum of Understanding and together with the Transmission System Operators for gas (TSO) from each country established the Project Management Unit (PMU) for the IAP project, devoted to defining further steps leading to the facilitation of development and implementation of the IAP project.
“PMU promotes the IAP project and uses every opportunity to present the importance and significance of IAP to the interested parties, decision makers within international community and potential partners/investors,” he said, adding that each country has two members in the PMU, one from the government and the other one from the TSO.
The Energy Community and Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR are the observers in the PMU.
The Permanent Secretariat of the PMU is hosted by the Ministry of Economy of Montenegro.
IAP is a proposed natural gas pipeline in Southeastern Europe (SEE) that will stretch from Albania through Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, to Split in Croatia. It will be connected with the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).
IAP will provide deliveries of Azerbaijani gas to several countries of South-Eastern Europe. The capacity of the pipeline will amount to five billion cubic meters of gas per year.
TAP is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor, which is one of the priority energy projects for the European Union. The project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz Stage 2 to the EU countries.
The pipeline will connect to the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) on the Turkish-Greek border, run through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Italy’s south.
TAP will be 878 kilometers in length (Greece 550 kilometers, Albania 215 kilometers, Adriatic Sea 105 kilometers, and Italy 8 kilometers).
TAP’s shareholding is comprised of BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Snam S.p.A. (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagás (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).
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