Italy, Albania, Greece to clinch deal on TAP pipeline Feb 13
Greece, Italy and Albania will sign on Feb. 13 in Athens an
agreement that seals their support for a natural gas pipeline
project to cross their territories, a spokesman for Greece`s
Foreign Ministry said on Saturday, AzerTac state news agency
reported.
The intergovernmental agreement is a condition to build the
Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), a project to link Azerbaijan`s giant
Shah Deniz II field with the three countries and beyond to western
Europe.
"The agreement will be signed on Feb. 13 in Athens," the spokesman
said. A TAP source confirmed the date.
TAP is one of two competing projects to carry gas from Shah Deniz
to Europe, which is keen to reduce its dependence on existing
suppliers including Russia. TAP`s shareholders are Swiss energy
company Axpo (42.5 percent), Norway`s Statoil (42.5 percent) and
E.ON Ruhrgas of Germany (15 percent).
Its rival Nabucco West includes Austria`s OMV, Germany`s RWE,
Hungary`s MOL and Turkey`s Botas.
The Shah Deniz consortium, which comprises BP, Statoil, Azerbaijani
energy firm SOCAR and Total, has a 50-percent equity option in both
rival projects. It is expected to choose one of the two pipeline
contenders by mid-2013.
Greece, Italy and Albania had signed a preliminary agreement to
back TAP in September.
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