Governments of Albania, Italy, Greece urged to sign technical deal over TAP pipeline as Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz consortium is expected to make a final decision on the selection of competing TAP and Nabucco pipeline projects early next year.
TIRANA, Nov. 8 – With just a few months to go before Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz II consortium decides on the consortium that will be selected to transport gas toWestern Europe, Trans Adriatic Pipeline officials have called on Albania, Italy and Greece to intensify efforts to sign a technical agreement.
The appeal came by Michael Hoffmann, TAP’s Director of External Affairs and Communications, during a meeting with Albania’s Foreign Minister Edmond Panariti in Tirana this week.
“The Shah Deniz consortium is expected to make a final decision on the selection of TAP or Nabucco pipeline projects in the first quarter of 2012 and this is why we must accelerate steps to sign the technical agreement among the three interested countries maybe within this year,” said Hoffman. The deal would further improve TAP’s chances against Nabucco West, the other remaining contender in the race to become the first pipeline to deliver Azeri gas to Europe, diversifying the supply. Nabucco West would run from the Turkish border via a northerly gas hub in Austria while TAP would link to Europe via Italy.
The appeal comes few weeks after the governments of Italy, Greece and Albania confirmed their political support for TAP with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in New York. Italy and Greece have decided to back the TAP project after Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz II consortium, led by BP and Statoil, chose TAP and Nabucco West as the two pipelines that would be used to transport gas to Western Europe.
In early 2012, Albania’s chances of getting of gas supply from an international pipeline boosted after Shah Deniz, the consortium developing a natural-gas field offshore Azerbaijan, announced it has excluded rival Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy, or ITGI. Albanian experts have described TAP as an opportunity that would benefit Albania both economically and politically, making it an important hub of the international gas pipeline for the Western Balkans.
TAP aims to become operational in 2017 and would carry 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) of Caspian gas a year and be scalable to a maximum capacity of 20 bcm.
TAP’s partners are Statoil, Swiss EGL and Germany’s E.ON Ruhrgas who say that thepipeline could create thousands of jobs.
Weighting support
There are big hopes that the TAP project bringing Azerbajani gas to Europe and passingthrough Albania territory wins over its rival Nabucco, says Deutsche Welle in the local Albanian service. The TAP project has the support of the United States support while Nabucco that of the EU with the argument that apart from Turkey the pipeline passes through EU countries which makes it safer. However TAP has the advantage of having a cost 13 times lower than Nabucco
‘TAP’s chances are almost sure because this is the most feasible and economical project of all and this is why this is a special moment for Albania where 2 billion Euros will be invested,” Prime Minister Sali Berisha has said, adding that government remained committed to eliminate every kind of bureaucratic burden and property issue so that TAP is built as soon as possible.
The Prime Minister said TAP would make Albania’s gasification at a low cost and turn the country into a gas distributor for the region.
The Albanian government is making a strong promotion of the TAP oil pipeline project pledging it will take all the required necessary steps for the project.
