TIRANA, Dec. 20 – Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company, SOCAR, has agreed to start a project on building a gas distribution network in Albania, hoping to turn the country into another user of the Azeri gas, which is mainly transported to western European countries.
Last week Azerbaijani Energy Minister Natig Aliyev, Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov and President of State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) Rovnag Abdullayev held a visit to Albania to meet with Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, Parliament Speaker Ilir Meta and Energy Minister Damian Gjiknuri. They discussed bilateral relations, especially cooperation on TAP and other regional projects.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed on cooperation on a master plan on gasifying Albania, which is part of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline project.
Work on the TAP project will start next year in Albania, bring in about $1 billion in investments.
The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline is a pipeline project to transport natural gas from the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan, starting from Greece via Albania and the Adriatic Sea to Italy and further to Western Europe.
