Azernews.Az

TIRANA – Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha said the country's neighbours have shown a clear willingness to agree to extend a section of the South Stream pipeline to the port town of Vlore in southern Albania, Reuters reported.

Except for the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), major pipelines have so far bypassed Albania, despite its position between western and eastern Europe. Former communist Albania lacks a gas supply network for consumers.

"There is a clear willingness from friendly countries that even the one called South Stream, which passes from Igoumenitsa in Greece towards Italy, to have a branch to Vlore," Berisha told a government meeting on Wednesday.

South Stream is a pipeline venture between Russia's Gazprom and Italian oil firm Eni and is expected to cost 10 billion euros ($13.5 billion).

Seen as a rival to Nabucco, the pipeline is designed to transport Russian gas under the Black Sea to southeastern Europe, avoiding Ukraine with which Moscow has had pricing debates.

Berisha is friendly with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and has been licensing numerous projects by Italian companies in Albania's energy sector.

TAP, a venture of Switzerland's EGL , Norway's StatoilHydro and Germany's E.ON Ruhrgas is expected to cost about 1.5 billion euros to build.

The 520 km pipeline will transport gas via Greece and Albania across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy from 2012.

It will initially have a capacity of 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) a year but could be expanded to bring up to 20 bcm/year of gas from the Caspian Sea and Middle East regions into Europe.