Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.16
By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:
The process of creating a company for the Ionian Adriatic Pipeline (IAP) is in its final stage, Chargés d'affaires ad interim of Croatian embassy in Azerbaijan Branko Zebic said in an interview with Trend.
IAP company will be based Split, he said, adding that Croatia will be the main receiver of gas via IAP and the longest part of this pipeline will run through this country.
“At the moment, we are in a good starting point. There is a very big project in front of us, in front of Azerbaijan and in front of even the EU. It is the Southern Gas Corridor. This is an important project for everybody. Now, we are trying together with some other countries in South-East Europe to build a special company to build IAP which would be connected TAP,” he added.
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). The capacity of the pipeline will amount to five billion cubic meters of gas per year.
Total length of the pipeline is 511 kilometers.
TAP worth 4.5 billion euros 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).