Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) AG will provide 200,000 Euro to support projects of associations and non-profit organizations in Italy. This is the first TAP community investment programme aimed to improve the quality of life through cultural, social and environmental projects. The initiative is called TAPstart.

Associations and non-profit entities registered in the Italian Municipality of Melendugno are eligible for spending up to 25,000 Euro of TAP funds for their projects submitted between July 15 and September 30, 2016.

The projects need to be in line with TAP’s four objectives for socio-environmental investment: economic development, quality of life, skills development or environmental protection. Projects submitted in partnership with Italian non-profit associations and institutions or local public entities (local authorities, schools, social and health facilities, etc.) are also eligible. Later in 2016, the projects will be evaluated by a special commission of independent experts and the list of winners will be prepared then. The projects will be implemented during 2017.

TAP is expected to launch further calls for submissions twice a year during the pipeline construction period, for a total of 1.4 million Euro.

The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) is a projected pipeline which will transport Azerbaijani gas to the Western Europe. The appropriate contracts were signed on September 19, 2013 with a number of foreign gas companies.

The pipeline of 878 kilometers long will launch from the Caspian sea, namely giant Azerbaijani Shah Deniz 2 field, connect with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) at the Turkish-Greek border, cross Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, coming ashore in Southern Italy and further to Western Europe.

On March 3, 2016, the European Commission has approved the construction of the pipeline which started in May. The building of the pipeline is expected to end in 2019. The initial capacity of TAP will be 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year, which can be expanded to 20 billion cubic meters in the future.

Azerbaijan's SOCAR company is one of the shareholders of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (20 percent). The other shareholders are BP (20 percent), Snam (20), Fluxys (19), Enagás (16) and Axpo (5) companies.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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