Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

Trans Adriatic Pipeline will allow direct sales of Azerbaijani gas to Europe, Gulmirza Javadov, head of the representative office of Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR in Austria, told Trend news agency on July 23.

According to Javadov, TAP will ensure gas sales in South and South-Eastern Europe, which will expand the relations between the countries of the region in the energy sector.

"Along with commercial interests, this will allow ensuring the security of gas supply, as well as achieving global diversification," Javadov said.

According to him, the development of new fields in the future will increase the volume of gas supplies to Europe.

In late June, the consortium developing Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas field 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 European markets was Nabucco West.

The TAP project is designed to transport gas from the resource-rich 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 long (Greece 550 km; Albania 210 km; offshore Adriatic Sea 15km; Italy 5 km). The construction of TAP is expected to start in 2015. First gas is expected in 2019.

TAP pipeline's initial capacity will be 10 billion cubic meters per year, but it will be easily expandable to 20 billion cubic meters.

TAP's shareholders are AXPO of Switzerland (42.5 per cent), Norway's Statoil (42.5 per cent) and E.ON Ruhrgas of Germany (15 per cent).