Tag: TAP

The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP ) group has agreed offer up to 50% of its shares to the Shah Deniz gas consortium - made up of Azerbaijan's state gas company SOCAR and leading European energy partners. The deal follows the rival Nabucco pipeline's recent decision to give the Caspian Sea gas consortium the chance to acquire half of its shares.

The Nabucco West project still has a chance of winning the contest to transport gas from Azerbaijan to European countries, even after a rival consortium signed a funding deal, an executive of the country's state oil firm said.

As long as the consortium managing the gas from Shah Deniz field in Azerbaijan is ready and willing to guarantee supplies of gas to Italy via the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), Gazprom's South Stream project "is irrelevant", TAP Managing Director Kjetil Tungland told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.

Without the participation of the Turkey-Greece-Italy Interconnector (ITGI), no other competitor can complete the offshore section to Italy, says the chief executive of Greece's publicly owned gas company DEPA. The project is intended to transport gas from Azerbaijan to Europe in 2018.

Azerbaijan has eliminated one of the main competitors bidding for the gas of the Shah Deniz II offshore field, apparently over concerns that one of project's partners, Greek gas company DEPA, would not be able to carry on with the project.

Competitors in the race to give life to the 'Southern gas corridor,' aimed at supplying Europe with non-Russian gas sources, have all lodged bids to obtain the 10 billion cubic meters per year which will be available from the offshore Shah Deniz II field in Azerbaijan.

EU officials are pushing for a merger of two strategic pipeline projects – Nabucco and its smaller Italian rival ITGI – to help secure gas supplies from Azerbaijan to Europe, according to news wire reports yesterday (17 February). The European Commission later confirmed it was encouraging projects in the 'Southern Gas Corridor' to cooperate.

Pressure is growing on the Nabucco consortium to reveal its hand over its tender for Azeri gas. The winner, to be announced in April, will be master of Europe's Southern Gas Corridor, designed to bring gas from sources other than Russia.

The gas pipeline consortium that wins a deal to buy 10 billion cubic metres of Azeri gas next April will become the backbone of the Southern Gas Corridor, Kjetil Tungland, managing director of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), told EurActiv in an exclusive interview.