BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan.24. The Ionian Adriatic Pipeline (IAP) will allow Albania to re-export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to South-East Europe, reads the article by Petr Vlk, economic diplomat, Embassy of the Czech Republic in Tirana, Trend reports with reference to Czech media.
“For Albania, the gas pipeline will mean the possibility of gasification of northern Albania and the re-export of imported liquified gas from the port of Vlora to the countries of Southern and Central Europe. Work on the Albanian part of the gas pipeline was supposed to start in 2021, but has been delayed. The expected construction duration of the Albanian section is 5 years. The cost of the entire construction is to reach 610 million euros, of which the Albanian section amounts to 288 million euros,” reads the article.
Petr Vlk believes that the IAP pipeline will enable Albania to use natural gas in industry, households in the areas of Northern Albania, i.e. areas far away from the route of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which runs from Southeastern Albania (the city of Korča) to its southwestern part (the city of Fier) from where it continues further under the sea to Italy.
Ionian Adriatic Pipeline can be connected to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) to transport gas to many countries in South-East Europe.
The pipeline with total length of 516 kilometers will stretch from Albania through Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, to split in Croatia.
The capacity of the pipeline will amount to five billion cubic meters of gas per year.
TAP has already signed memorandums of understanding and cooperation with the developers of this project, in particular with companies of Plinacro (Croatia), BH-Gas (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Geoplin Plinovodi (Slovenia), as well as with the governments of Montenegro and Albania.
There has been created a TAP-IAP joint working group that gathers regularly to synchronize the timing of both pipeline projects and coordinate the technical issues of interconnection.
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