BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 27. The number of shippers of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) has increased significantly, Luca Schieppati, TAP managing director, said in an exclusive interview with Trend ahead of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council’s meeting to be held in Baku March 1.
“TAP’s initial capacity of 10 bcm/a has been allocated to shippers and booked for 25 years, in line with the long-term gas transportation contracts signed back in 2013. As you may know, TAP offers to the market capacity for short-term bookings through the PRISMA capacity booking platform. The level of these short-term bookings depends on the market needs. However, since February 2022, due to the ongoing crisis, we have been invited to address Europe’s natural gas shortages and we have tackled this challenge successfully. Since then, we have been close to full utilization, with significant short-term bookings, on top of long-term commitments and the number of our shippers has increased significantly,” he said.
Luca Schieppati noted that TAP has transported more than 32 billion cubic meters to date.
“We have been leveraging the operating conditions of the pipeline to maximize the volumes transported and we developed commercial products increasing the use of short-term capacity on top of long-term commitments and short-term regulatory obligations. Since the start of operations on the last day of 2020, TAP has transported over 32 bcm to date. In 2023 alone, we transported 11.5 bcm, the highest annual volume transported since we started our operations. TAP has proven itself as a resilient and reliable strategic energy infrastructure during the last three years of its operation and we are committed to continue supporting Europe in 2024 and beyond,” added the managing director.
The Trans Adriatic Pipeline is part of the Southern Gas Corridor, transporting natural gas to Europe from the Shah Deniz II field in Azerbaijan.
Connecting with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline at the Greek-Turkish border, TAP crosses Northern Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before coming ashore in Southern Italy to connect to the Italian natural gas network. TAP’s initial capacity is 10 billion cubic meters per year, which can be expanded to 20 billion cubic meters.
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