Middle East > Armenia > Caspian Gas Partners Buy Into Adriatic Pipeline

Armenia: Caspian Gas Partners Buy Into Adriatic Pipeline

2013/08/04

Britain’s BP, Azerbaijan’s national energy company SOCAR and French multinational Total have taken shares in the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, TAP, a project to pump natural gas from the huge Azerbaijan fields in the Caspian Sea to European markets. BP, SOCAR and Total, members of the consortium developing the Shah Deniz gas field in the Caspian Sea off Azerbaijan, have joined the construction of the new Trans Adriatic Pipeline.

“British Petroleum and SOCAR have each taken a 20 % share while Total has acquired 10 %,” TAP said in a statement on Tuesday.

“In addition, Fluxys, a major gas transit operator in Europe, has opted to join TAP, taking a 16 % stake in the project,” it added.

TAP’s previous shareholders, Axpo of Switzerland, Statoil of Norway and E.ON of Germany, will continue to hold interests in the project.

TAP’s shareholding presently comprises BP (20 %), SOCAR (20 %), Statoil (20 %), Fluxys (16 %), Total (10 %), E.ON (9 %) and Axpo (5 %).

“Our new shareholders will significantly enhance TAP’s strategic position in becoming an integral link between both their upstream and downstream businesses,” Kjetil Tungland, managing director for TAP, said in a statement.

TAP will transport gas from the Caspian via Greece and Albania across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy and further into western Europe.

The approximately 870-kilometre-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.

It will open up the new, EU-backed Southern Gas Corridor to Europe and establish a new market outlet for natural gas from the Caspian Sea and beyond, while as well helping to reduce Europe’s gas supply dependency on Russia.

Tungland said that the addition of the new shareholders would “further strengthen the integration of all Southern Gas Corridor price chain and support TAP’s delivery of the project on time and on budget”.

TAP’s routing will facilitate gas supplies to several south-eastern European nations, inclunding Bulgaria, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and others.

Albania is expected to benefit by up to two billion euro in investments only through the construction phase of the pipeline. The project is as well expected to enhance the country’s energy security and its strategic position as an energy hub.

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