Azernews.Az

By Leman Mammadova

The Southern Gas Corridor and its key elements have been discussed at the European Gas Conference in Vienna, Austria held on January 28-30.

The conference focused on the topics titled “TAP and TANAP: Getting ready to receive gas” and “Developments of the Southern Gas Corridor”.

Representatives of SOCAR and BP, as well as TAP Managing Director Luca Schieppati are among the participants, AZERTAC reported.

The event was attended by representatives of the European Commission and various government officials, including OMV, Gazprom, Uniper, Eni, Total, Equinor, Fluxys.

Speaking at the event, TAP Executive Director Luca Schieppati emphasized that more than 84 percent of Trans Adriatic gas pipeline project (TAP), including engineering, procurement and construction, has been implemented to transport natural gas to Europe.

He noted that 97 percent of TAP pipes in Greece and Albania have already been defined. At the same time, Italy continues to work on construction of the terminal and micro-tunnel.

Earlier, Schieppati said that TAP has completed its $4.5 billion (3.9 billion euros) project financing, paving the way for construction to be completed for start-up in 2020.

The Southern Gas Corridor, $ 40 billion worth project, envisages the transportation of gas to Turkey and Europe through the pipeline, which will be operated within the second stage of the Shah Deniz gas condensate field project in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea.

The Southern Gas Corridor consists of four projects: Shah Deniz 2, Expansion of South Caucasus Pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum), the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). The projects have an estimated investment cost of approximately $40 billion.

TAP envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijani Shah Deniz-2 gas field to Greece and southern Italy across the Adriatic Sea through Greece and Albania, and involves designing, construction and operation of the natural gas pipeline.

TAP will be the first non-Russian gas pipeline to supply Europe since the Medgaz link, which started deliveries from Algeria to Spain in 2011.

In 2018, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) approved loans for the project. The rest of the financing has come from export credit agencies and a group of 17 commercial banks, which include Bank of China, BNP Paribas, Societe Generale and UniCredit.

On May 29, Baku hosted the launch ceremony of the first phase of the Southern Gas Corridor project.

The Intergovernmental Agreement on the TAP project was signed by Albania, Italy and Greece in February 2013. The 878-kilometer-long TAP pipeline (Greece 550 kilometers, Albania 215 kilometers, Adriatic Sea 105 kilometers, and Italy 8 kilometers) having connected to the TANAP on the Turkish-Greek border, will run through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Italy’s south.

In November, TAP and TANAP successfully completed their connection on the banks of the Merich River on the Turkish-Greek border.

The initial capacity of TAP will be 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year with the possibility of doubling it.

TAP shareholders include BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Snam S.p.A. (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagas (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).

The TAP project is one of the strategic objectives of the EU in the energy security and diversification of energy sources, chosen as the shortest and direct way to export natural gas from Azerbaijan to the European markets.

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