Prime minister seeks Azerbaijani support in meeting with President Aliyev.
TIRANA, April 8 – Prime Minister Sali Berisha made a visit to Azerbaijan last week, meeting with all top officials in an effort to urge more investment from the oil-rich country.
Berisha met with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev to discuss issues of expansion of political, cultural, economic and energy cooperation between the two countries.
Berisha also took part at an international conference, the World Economic Forum, held in Baku where he had the opportunity to meet with Azeri companies.
Berisha said that he tried to convince the Azeri businessmen to invest their money in Albania.
He also signed an agreement with the Azeri government on a study on how to build up the gas network in Albania.
Albania is part of the TAP gas pipeline project that is facing tough competition from an alternative project, NABUCO, to get Azeri field gas to Western Europe, and Tirana has been trying to convince Baku to vote in its favor.
Albanian government has signed off on the terms for the implementation of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline through its territory, the project’s consortium said.
TAP welcomed the signing of a host government agreement for the pipeline by the Albanian government. The agreement spells out the terms of land easement, acquisition and other permitting regulations.
“We would like to thank the Albanian government for their continuing support in realizing today’s agreement and look forward to working closely with them in realizing TAP, and all of the benefits it will bring for Albania,” TAP Managing Director Kjetil Tungland said in a statement.
TAP said it’s one of the largest sources of foreign investments in Albania. TAP would extend from the Turkish border through Greece and Albanian before it crosses the Adriatic Sea. It’s designed to carry 350 billion cubic feet of natural gas per year but could expand as the project evolves.
TAP is up against the overland Nabucco West pipeline, a more ambitious project planned from the Turkish border. The BP-led group controlling the Shah Deniz II natural gas field offshore Azerbaijan is expected to make a decision between the two projects by June.
