Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

The Trans Adriatic Pipeline AG (TAP AG), which is the exclusive provider of transportation services and related marketing rights on the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), will start the Booking Phase from March 17.

This will be done by sending the Booking Phase Notice to all registered participants, TAP reported on February 19.

All participants in the Expression of Interest (EoI) Phase are allowed to participate in this first Booking Phase, subject to the capacity caps for the Italian, Greek and Albanian market.

A party is considered to have participated in the EoI phase also if another party has expressed interest for the benefit of the party that wishes to participate in the Booking Phase, in accordance with the procedures set out in the EoI Notice.

The EoI Phase took place on June 15- August 15, 2012. In the EoI phase all potential users, institutions and TSOs were invited to express their interest in contracting capacity or in connecting to the TAP Pipeline. The EoI Phase neither bound participants to book the capacity for which they had expressed their interest, nor bound TAP AG to offer it.

The terms of registration and participation in the Booking Phase are published on TAP's official website.

TAP, which is designed to supply the Caspian gas to Europe, will transport natural gas from the giant Shah Deniz II field in Azerbaijan to Europe. The approximately 870 km long pipeline will connect with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) near the Turkish-Greek border at Kipoi, cross Greece and Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Southern Italy.

TAP's routing can facilitate gas supply to several South Eastern European countries, including Bulgaria, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and others. TAP's landfall in Italy provides multiple opportunities for further transport of Caspian natural gas to some of the largest European markets such as Germany, France, the UK, Switzerland and Austria.

TAP's shareholding is comprised of BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Statoil (20 percent), Fluxys (16 percent), Total (10 percent), E.ON (9 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).