Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 12
By Orkhan Quluzade – Trend:
DESFA, the Greek gas transmission system operator, and AlbGaz, the Albanian gas transmission system operator company, will create a joint venture for maintenance of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) in Albania, the Greek media reported Apr. 12.
At the same time, it is expected that in early May 2017, DESFA, together with Bulgartransgaz EAD, the gas transmission and storage system operator of Bulgaria, Transgaz, the technical operator of the national natural gas transmission system of Romania, and FGSZ Ltd., the operator of the national natural gas transmission system of Hungary, will sign a memorandum for the construction of the so-called Vertical Corridor that will connect Greece, Bulgaria and Romania.
Ukraine’s Uktransgaz also showed interest to take part in the construction of this corridor. The Vertical Corridor will provide an opportunity to obtain Caspian gas using the TAP pipeline.
The throughput capacity of the Vertical Corridor pipeline will be 3-5 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
The TAP pipeline will be connected 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.
Construction of the TANAP pipeline is currently underway in Turkey. The pipeline’s construction will be finished in 2018 and after completion of the TAP’s construction the gas will be delivered to Europe in early 2020.