TAP continues talks with TANAP, its official says
The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) continues dialogue with Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) project on technical cooperation, a TAP official said.
"TAP continues a regular and positive dialogue with TANAP with regards to technical cooperation," Lisa Givert, Head of Communications at TAP project wrote Trend in an e-mail.
Givert stressed that TAP welcomes the ratification of agreement on TANAP by Azerbaijani Parliament and sees it as an important step forward in the development of the Southern Gas Corridor.
This week the Azerbaijani Parliament ratified an agreement on the construction of a separate gas pipeline to transport gas to Turkey through its territory, as well as an agreement on TANAP between the governments of Azerbaijan and Turkey.
The TANAP project envisages the construction of a gas pipeline from Turkey's eastern border to the western border to transport gas from Azerbaijan's offshore Shah Deniz field to Europe through Turkey. On June 26, Azerbaijan and Turkey signed an intergovernmental agreement on TANAP's implementation.
At present, Turkish BOTAS owns a 20 per cent share in TANAP, while SOCAR owns an 80 per cent stake. SOCAR intends to retain 51 per cent of its share in TANAP. Turkey will own 20 per cent of the equity.
The initial capacity of the pipeline will be 16 billion cubic meters. Some six billion cubic meters of the volume will be supplied to Turkey, while the rest will be transported to Europe.
TAP project 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 within the second phase of Shah Deniz gas condensate field development is considered as the main source for TAP.
TAP's initial pipeline capacity will be 10 billion cubic metres per year, expandable to 20 billion cubic metres per year. TAP's shareholders are EGL of Switzerland (42.5 percent), Norway's Statoil (42.5 percent) and E.ON Ruhrgas of Germany (15 percent).