Baku, Azerbaijan, March 16
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
The volume of equity investments made by Italy’s Snam S.p.A. company in TAP AG, the consortium for construction of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project, envisaging transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe stood at 223 million euros in 2017, Snam said in its report.
“Equity investments (1,591 million euro) related to: equity method valuation of the companies Trans Austria Gasleitung GmbH - TAG (508 million euro), TIGF Holding S.A.S. (471 million euro), Trans Adriatic Pipeline AG – TAP (223 million euro), Italgas S.p.A. (160 million euro), AS Gasinfrastrucktur Beteiligung GmbH (129 million euro), and Gasbridge 1 B.V. and Gasbridge 2 B.V. (56 million euro in total); the valuation of the minority interest in Terminale GNL Adriatico S.r.l. (Adriatic LNG) purchased from Edison on 13 October 2017 (44 million euro),” said the company.
TAP project, worth 4.5 billion euros, is one of the priority energy projects for the European Union (EU). The project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz Stage 2 to the EU countries.
Connecting with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) at the Greek-Turkish border, TAP will cross Northern Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before coming ashore in Southern Italy to connect to the Italian natural gas network.
The project is currently in its construction phase, which started in 2016.
Once built, TAP will offer a direct and cost-effective transportation route opening up the vital Southern Gas Corridor, a 3,500-kilometer long gas value chain stretching from the Caspian Sea to Europe.
TAP shareholders include 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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