Azernews.Az

Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) submitted its Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for the Albanian section of the proposed gas pipeline to the National Licensing Centre in Albania,Trend news agency reported on Wednesday referring to the TAP.

According to the report, the objective of the ESIA is to assess potential impacts of the pipeline project on the environment, cultural heritage and socio-economic development and to propose measures in order to avoid, reduce or mitigate negative impacts.

Once TAP's ESIA application has been disclosed and discussed, TAP expects to receive approval of the ESIA and respective environmental permit from the Albanian government in the next few months, TAP said.

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 Azerbaijani 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, but is easily expandable to 20 billion cubic metres per year. TAP's shareholders are AXPO of Switzerland (42.5 percent), Norway's Statoil (42.5 percent) and E.ON Ruhrgas of Germany (15 percent).