Azernews.Az

Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) could transport Caspian gas not only to Italy but also to key western European markets through existing pipeline systems, a TAP official told Azerbaijan's Trend news agency.

"It [TAP] remains the only project in the Southern Gas Corridor which can physically transport significant volumes of Caspian gas to such markets as Germany and Switzerland through existing pipeline systems such as Transitgas," Michael Hoffmann, TAP External Affairs and Communications Director, wrote in an e-mail.

TAP is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy and further into western Europe. Gas to be produced during the second stage of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field development is the main supply source for the project.

The Transitgas pipeline is the Swiss section of the high-pressure natural gas pipeline which connects the northern European gas fields with Italy. In February 2012 Transitgas pipeline operator Fluxswiss said that in the future it could also flow from south to north, which means that gas would be transported through Italy into Switzerland and to western Europe.

Hoffmann said that TAP has the additional capacity to link new promising markets in south-eastern Europe via the proposed Ionian Adriatic Pipeline (IAP) and Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) which would serve the western and eastern Balkans respectively.

TAP's initial capacity will be 10 billion cubic meters per year, expandable to 20 billion cubic meters. TAP's shareholders are EGL of Switzerland (42.5 percent), Norway's Statoil (42.5 percent) and E.ON Ruhrgas of Germany (15 percent).

Earlier this year Shah Deniz consortium made TAP a priority route for the export of Azerbaijani gas to Italy.

Hoffmann said that TAP offers the best commercial, technical and strategic advantages to the Shah Deniz consortium, Azerbaijani government as well as European energy consumers.

"TAP represents the best commercial, technical project for the Shah Deniz consortium and Azerbaijan whilst providing significant benefits [jobs and investment] in Greece, Albania and Italy. All this, plus a much shorter pipeline and the higher price offered by the Italian market reinforces TAP's position as the commercially preferred solution for the Shah Deniz consortium," Hoffmann said.