BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb.28
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
The European Commission recognises the importance of the Ionian-Adriatic Pipeline (IAP) for the regional gas market, in particular Croatia, Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, a source in the European Commission told Trend.
“As a signal of its relevance for the region, the Commission has awarded IAP the status of Project of Mutual Interest (PMI), category of infrastructure projects that includes those that benefit one or more Contracting Parties(Western Balkan countries, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia) and one or more Member States but do not have a Project of common interest (PCl) status in the European Union, in line with the Regulation (EU) 347/2013,” said the source.
Given its PMI status, Commission’s funding under specific programmes, such as the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA), could be explored for the support of the construction of IAP in the Western Balkan countries, the source added.
Ionian Adriatic Pipeline can be connected to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) to transport gas to many countries in South-East Europe.
The pipeline with total length of 516 kilometers will stretch from Albania through Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, to split in Croatia.
The capacity of the pipeline will amount to five billion cubic meters of gas per year.
TAP has already signed memorandums of understanding and cooperation with the developers of this project, in particular with companies of Plinacro (Croatia), BH-Gas (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Geoplin Plinovodi (Slovenia), as well as with the governments of Montenegro and Albania.
There has been created a TAP-IAP joint working group that gathers regularly to synchronize the timing of both pipeline projects and coordinate the technical issues of interconnection. In particular, Croatia expects to receive approximately 2.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year through the IAP.
Possible time of implementation of the project hasn’t been announced yet.
Albania, Bosnia, Croatia and Montenegro are planning to finalize the preliminary design of the IAP, which provides for the transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Southeast Europe, by September 2020.
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