Baku, Azerbaijan, June 3
By Seymur Aliyev - Trend:
French Total and German E.ON are considering an opportunity to sell their stakes in the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project, a SOCAR senior official told media on June 3.
TPAO and Total Azerbaijan signed a purchase-sale contract of 10 percent equity for Total in the Azerbaijani offshore gas condensate Shah Deniz field development project in late May.
TPAO share in the project will be increased to 19 percent, according to the contract.
Partners operating for Shah Deniz field's development, which has reserves of 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas, include SOCAR with a share of 16.7 percent, British BP (28.8 percent), Norwegian Statoil (15.5 percent), Iranian NICO (10 percent), French Total (10 percent), Russian Lukoil (10 percent) and Turkish TPAO (9 percent).
The TAP project was selected by the consortium of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field development as the transportation route to the European markets.
TAP is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy and then to Western Europe.
Construction of the pipeline is planned to start in 2016.
The initial capacity of the pipeline will be 10 billion cubic meters per year, but it can easily be expanded to 20 billion cubic meters per year.
TAP's shareholding is comprised of BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Statoil (20 percent), Fluxys (16 percent), Total (10 percent), E.ON (9 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).
edited by CN
