Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 20 / Trend A.Badalova, S.Aliyev /
Shah Deniz consortium does not consider ITGI (Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy) as the project to deliver Azerbaijani gas to the European markets, the consortium's spokesperson told Trend on Monday.
The decision was made in accordance with the previously announced criteria for the export of gas from Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field to the European countries.
According to the Consortium's decision, Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) is priority route for export of Azerbaijani gas to Italy. The Consortium will continue the negotiations with TAP, along with the other concerned projects to the Central Europe. ITGI was also considered as the possible route for the export of gas to Italy.
Shah Deniz consortium is currently considering three possible export routes, whereas in early selection they were four (together with ITGI). Nabucco, South East Europe Pipeline (SEEP) and TAP projects are considered potential routes at present.
On Oct. 1, Nabucco, TAP, ITGI submitted their final proposals to the Azerbaijani side, which will review them in accordance with the previously announced criteria. The decision on the preferable transportation route is expected to be made in the first quarter of 2012.
Azerbaijan plans to export 10 billion cubic metres of gas within the Shah Deniz-2 project.
ITGI project envisages gas supplies from the Caspian region and the Middle East to the EU countries. It includes updated Turkish pipeline infrastructure and the Turkey-Greece junction pipeline and IGI. Its planned capacity is 11.8 billion cubic meters per year.
TAP is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy and further into western Europe. The total length of TAP is about 800 kilometers. TAP's shareholders are EGL of Switzerland (42.5 percent), Norway's Statoil (42.5 percent) and E.ON Ruhrgas of Germany (15 percent). The initial pipeline capacity of TAP will be 10 billion cubic metres per year, expandable to 20 billion cubic metres per year.
Nabucco gas pipeline is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region and Middle East to the European countries. The original concept of Nabucco project envisages the construction of the pipeline from the Georgian-Turkish and Iraqi-Turkish borders to the Austrian Baumgarten. The pipeline is expected to run through Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria over a distance of 3,900 kilometres.