Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.14
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
The work on setting up a company for implementation of the Ionian Adriatic Pipeline (IAP) project is expected to be completed in the first half of 2019, head of SOCAR Balkan company Murad Heydarov told Trend.
“IAP participating countries continue to work on creating the project company. We expect that this work will be completed in the first half of the next year,” he said.
Heydarov noted that SOCAR Balkan intends to cooperate with the new company.
“The cooperation form and the corresponding legal frameworks are under development. We are convinced that the IAP is the logical link that will connect the Southern Gas Corridor with the countries of the Western Balkan region,” he added.
IAP is a proposed natural gas pipeline in Southeastern Europe (SEE) that will stretch from Albania through Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, to Split in Croatia. It will be connected with the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). The capacity of the pipeline will amount to five billion cubic meters of gas per year.
Total length of the pipeline is 511 kilometers.
TAP worth 4.5 billion euros is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor, which is one of the priority energy projects for the European Union. The project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz Stage 2 to the EU countries.
TAP will be 878 kilometers in length (Greece 550 kilometers, Albania 215 kilometers, Adriatic Sea 105 kilometers, and Italy 8 kilometers).
TAP’s shareholding is comprised of BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Snam S.p.A. (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagás (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).
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