SOCAR: No changes in planned commissioning of TAP gas project
By Ayya Lmahamad
Azerbaijan’s State Oil Company (SOCAR) has said that Armenia’s attack on Azerbaijan’s energy infrastructure on October 6 and the ongoing clashes near the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh has not affected the planned commissioning of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) that will take Azerbaijani gas to European markets .
"So far there have been no changes neither in export volumes nor in the schedule of TAP commissioning," Deputy Head of SOCAR’s PR and Event Management Department Ibrahim Ahmadov has told to S&P Global Platts.
Ahmad said the company has modeled possible scenarios and taken all necessary precautions in order to prevent or reduce damage in case of another Armenian attack.
Earlier, TAP’s executive director Luca Schieppati said escalation of tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan will not affect the plans to export Azerbaijani gas via Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). “Currently, tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh region do not pose any risk to natural gas supplies to TAP. Because the corridor is far from the most critical area,” Schieppati said.
Armenia fired a cluster rocket to Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline. The rocket landed 10 meters away from BTC piepeline near Yevlakh region, however, there was no damage to the pipeline.
Armenia has launched missile attacks targeting civilian settlements and infrastructure projects in Azerbaijan shortly after it resumed attacks near occupied Nagorno-Karabakh.
On October 4, Armenia launched missile attack on Ganja, Azerbaijan's second largest populated city. There were also attacks on Mingachevir city that has a hydroelectric power station as well as on Khizi and Abheron region on the same day.
Azerbaijan will start transportation of natural gas to Italy via Trans Adriatic pipeline by late 2020.
Nearly 98 percent of the work has been completed on the TAP gas pipeline project, through which Azerbaijani gas will be supplied to Europe, including engineering, procurement and construction.
By the end of the year, it will be possible to transport natural gas via pipeline and open the Southern Gas Corridor.
Earlier it was reported that test shipment of Azerbaijani natural gas from Shah Deniz-2 gas condensate field to Europe via Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline has started.
The Southern Gas Corridor is an initiative of the European Commission for a natural gas supply route from Caspian and Middle Eastern regions to Europe. The route from Azerbaijan to Europe consist of the South Caucasus Pipeline, the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline, and the Trans- Adriatic Pipeline.
Trans Adriatic Pipeline is a pipeline project to transport natural gas, starting from Greece via Albania and the Adriatic Sea to Italy and further to Western Europe.
The pipeline would be supplied by natural gas from the second stage of the Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz gas field development in the Azerbaijani section of Caspian SEA through the South Caucasus Pipeline and the Trans Anatolian Pipeline.
The total length of the pipeline will be 878 kilometres, of which 550 kilometres in Greece, 215 kilometres in Albania, 105 kilometres in offshore, and 8 kilometres in Italy. The offshore part will be laid at a maximum depth of 810 metres.
The initial capacity of the pipeline will be about 10 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year, with the option to expand the capacity up to 20 billion cubic metres.
There have been severe clashes on the line of contact between the Armenian and Azerbaijani troops since September 27, after Armenia launched attacks along the line of contact. 31 Azerbaijani civilians have been killed in the attacks.
Azerbaijan and Armenia are locked in a conflict over Azerbaijan’s Nagorno-Karabakh breakaway region, which along with seven adjacent regions was occupied by Armenian forces in a war in the early 1990s. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and around one million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.
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