Four Balkan states sign memo on TAP pipeline project
By Aynur Jafarova
Government officials of Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia have signed a memorandum of understanding, support and cooperation in the construction of two new pipelines - Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and Ionian Adriatic Pipeline (IAP), Azerbaijani news agency Trend reported with reference to RIA Novosti.
The memorandum was signed on May 23 in Tirana.
The 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. TAP's initial capacity will be 10 billion cubic meters per year, but it is easily expandable to 20 billion cubic meters.
The proposed IAP natural gas pipeline in the Western Balkans would run from Albania through Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, to Croatia.
The parties undertook a commitment to promote the development, financing and implementation of projects on the construction of gas pipelines, as well as to prepare the domestic markets for receiving gas from Azerbaijan and the entire Caspian region.
The consortium developing Azerbaijan's giant Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea is considering TAP and Nabucco West, another pipeline project, for gas export. The consortium will make its final decision on the pipeline route in June and a final investment decision by October 2013.Earlier this week the governments of Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey adopted a joint declaration at the fifth Nabucco Committee meeting in Bucharest stressing the potential of the Nabucco gas pipeline to supply the energy markets of the Western Balkans and the Visegrad group countries (Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary).
Nabucco West, a short-cut version of the Nabucco project, which envisages construction of a pipeline from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to Austria, and TAP are part of the Southern Gas Corridor -- one of the EU's priority energy projects. The Southern Gas Corridor aims at diversifying the routes and sources of energy supply, thereby increasing secure delivery.
The governments of the five mentioned countries further expressed their commitment to engage in developing the necessary gas interconnections to ensure that Nabucco can also supply the countries in the Southern and Central-North dimension of Europe.
The State Parties called on the European Council which will meet on May 22 to address the completion of the Internal Energy Market to note the wider potential of Nabucco to provide access to new sources of gas for promoting growth and competition at the European level.
According to Nabucco Gas Pipeline International CEO Reinhard Mitschek, Nabucco is the shortest route to the markets of South Eastern Europe and remains the best option to open the Southern Gas Corridor.
The gas which will be produced within the second stage of Shah Deniz field development is considered as the main source for the Nabucco West and TAP projects.
The Shah Deniz field, which is one of the world's largest gas-condensate fields, was discovered in 1999. Its reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas.
Overall, the Shah Deniz field has proved to be a secure and reliable supplier of gas to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey as well as Europe.