Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.18
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) will consolidate Greece’s position as a key transit country of the Southern Gas Corridor, Εnergy and Environment Minister of Greece, Giorgos Stathakis, said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
“The project is unfolding smoothly and in a timely manner across the 550 km of Greek soil,” said the minister. “Already works on the initial 30 km of the pipeline are completed and the operations on the other parts are well underway.”
Stathakis pointed out that the involvement of local companies in the construction processes reinvigorated the economy of Northern Greece.
“The long-term benefits though are yet to come, since TAP will consolidate the country’s position as a key transit country of the Southern Gas Corridor, while a future upgrade of the pipeline’s capacity to 20 billion cubic meters combined with additional infrastructure works of gas storage could lay the ground for transforming Greece into a gas hub,” he added.
The minister noted that TAP is the key driver that puts the whole Southern Gas Corridor concept into place.
Three years after its initial inception, this priority project [Southern Gas Corridor] promoted the cooperation between gas suppliers and transit countries and led to tangible results, said Stathakis.
“The next step is to consolidate further this cooperation by combining the expansion of the corridor with the gradual creation of what I call a South-Eastern Energy Crossroad,” he added.
The Southern Gas Corridor envisages transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region to Europe via Georgia and Turkey.
The gas will be exported through expansion of the South Caucasus Pipeline and the construction of the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline.
TAP project envisages transportation of gas from the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas and condensate field to the EU countries.
The 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.
TAP shareholders are BP (20 percent), State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (20 percent), Snam (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagas (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).
TAP will be 878 kilometers in length (Greece 550 km, Albania 215 km, Adriatic Sea 105 km, and Italy 8 km). Its highest point will be 1,800 meters in Albania’s mountains, while its lowest point will be 820 meters beneath the sea.
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