Azernews.Az

Bulgarian Economy and Energy Minister Dragomir Stoynev said that the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project may turn into a key source of gas supplies for Bulgaria through an association with the Bulgaria-Greece gas grid interconnection, Sofia News Agency reported.

"The implementation of the reverse-flow gas link with Bulgaria's southern neighbor will achieve a true diversification of gas supply sources for Bulgaria," he emphasized," Stoynev said at a meeting with TAP's representatives.

Stoynev said that this will also provide the opportunity for receiving gas supplies through the Southern Gas Corridor, adding that Bulgaria was also working on the implementation of reverse-flow gas grid interconnections with Turkey, Romania and Serbia.

Stoynev went on to say that the Bulgarian government considers gas supply diversification a top priority, and that Bulgaria "should consider TAP as an extremely important project for achieving a diversification of gas supplies to countries in Southeast European countries, including gas shipments from the Caspian region.

In late June, the consortium of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field development officially announced the selection of TAP as the route to transport its gas to Europe. Another pipeline which was vying for Azerbaijani gas transportation to Europe was Nabucco West.

The TAP project is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to the south of Italy and further to Western Europe. Gas which will be produced during the second stage of Shah Deniz field development is considered as the main source for the project.

The TAP route will be approximately 870 kilometers in length (Greece 550 km; Albania 210 km; offshore Adriatic Sea 15km; Italy 5 km). TAP's initial pipeline capacity will be 10 billion cubic meters per year, but it will be easily expandable to 20 billion cubic meters per year. TAP's shareholders are AXPO of Switzerland (42.5 percent), Norway's Statoil (42.5 percent) and E.ON of Germany (15 percent).