Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
The US President Donald Trump has expressed hope that Italy will be able to build the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) which envisages transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe.
He made the remarks during a joint press conference with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte in Washington.
“As far as a pipeline is concerned, I’d like to see a competing pipeline. So, Mr. Prime Minister, I hope you’re going to be able to do that competing pipeline,” said Trump.
TAP project, worth 4.5 billion euros, is one of the priority energy projects for the European Union (EU), and has already attracted 1.5 billion euros from the European Investment Bank (EIB), which approved the loan in early February 2018.
Connecting with the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas 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), Enagas (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).
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