TAP pipeline said to be chosen for Azerbaijani gas export to Europe
By Aynur Jafarova
The consortium developing Azerbaijan's giant Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea did not select the Nabucco West pipeline as a route for transportation of its gas to Europe, says a press release from the OMV company, a Nabucco shareholder.
The other route, which was considered alongside Nabucco, was Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), but neither TAP nor Shah Deniz made an official statement about the choice of this project.
The decision of the Shah Deniz consortium has increased the chances of TAP. The TAP project with initial capacity of 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year will be connected to the Trans Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP), which envisages the construction of a pipeline from the eastern border of Turkey to the country's western border to supply gas from the Shah Deniz field to European markets through Turkey.
TAP Managing Director Kjetil Tungland said earlier that cooperation of TAP with the TANAP project is another milestone for further progress in the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor.
The Greek government supports the TAP project. Earlier Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Kourkoulas said that his government supports the choice of the TAP project as a route for the export of Azerbaijani gas to Europe.
The government of Greece, which is to be crossed by the TAP pipeline, is satisfied with the decision of the Shah Deniz consortium.
Greece and the TAP consortium signed the Host Government Agreement in Athens on June 26, ANA-MPA news agency reported.
But the final decision for the pipeline's construction is not expected until June 28, when the Shah Deniz 2 consortium in Azerbaijan will announce the pipeline that is to be supplied first.
All signs point to the selection of TAP - which starts on the Greek-Turkish border and goes to Italy via Albania and an underwater section in the Adriatic Sea - but there is no official announcement yet.
On June 26, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras met with representatives of Shah Deniz 2 Consortium at the Maximos Mansion in Athens, ahead of the consortium's decision by the end of June on whether TAP or Nabucco will be supplied first, ANA-MPA reported.
Earlier experts said that the commercial component will play an important role in the selection of a final route for transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe. Furthermore, the selected market should be able to offer the exporters long-term security of demand for a period of at least 20-25 years.
In this context, the first advantage of the TAP project is the higher gas price on the Italian hub by 20 percent compared with the price in western Europe.
TAP's shareholders are major global, European and regional players that would only increase the pipeline's commercial viability, analysts say.
Nabucco West is a short-cut version of the Nabucco project, which envisages construction of a pipeline from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to Austria.
The TAP project is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to the south of Italy, and further to Western Europe. TAP's initial pipeline capacity will be 10 billion cubic meters per year, but it is easily expandable to 20 billion cubic meters per year. TAP's shareholders are Switzerland's AXPO (42.5 percent), Norway's Statoil (42.5 percent) and Germany's E.ON Ruhrgas (15 percent).