THE consortium for Shah Deniz-2 has opted for the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project as its likely partner to transport Azeri gas to Europe, while the Greek and Italian governments remained committed to the rival ITGI project.
Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), a proposed pipeline project to transport natural gas from Greece via Albania and the Adriatic Sea to Italy and further to Western Europe, is one of the four proposals in the pipeline race – ITGI, Nabucco and SEEP.
“There were originally four options to carry the gas from Shah Deniz. Now the decision has been taken not to go ahead with ITGI, so now we're down to three options,” a spokesman for BP told Reuters on Monday.
BP operates the Shah Deniz-2 gas field, which is thought to contain 1.2 trillion cubic metres of gas, and holds a 25.5 per cent stake, as does Statoil. The rest is divided between SOCAR, LUKOIL, NICO, Total and TPAO.
However, the Italian and Greek governments said on Monday that they remained committed to the ITGI project.
"According to Italy and Greece, talks should go ahead to explore all alternatives for the opening of the Southern Corridor, to which the ITGI project can contribute greatly," the two ministries said in a joint statement.
The Interconnection Turkey Greece Italy (ITGI) project, the proposed project which will supply natural gas from the Caspian Sea and the Middle East to Europe, would be an upgrade and extension of existing gas connections.
The move was seen as a blow for Italian energy company Edison, Turkey's Botas and Greek gas company DEPA, that have spent huge resources in promoting it.
"Edison does not comment [on the news] since it hasn’t received any formal announcement from the Shah Deniz Consortium but it confirms its strong commitment to ITGI’s development," a company official said Monday.
TAP, whose partners are Statoil, Swiss EGL and Germany's E.ON Ruhrgas, said it would now move ahead with negotiations in order to push the project ahead.
“We look forward to progressing the TAP project together with the Shah Deniz Consortium and the Italian, Albanian and Greek governments,” TAP managing director Kjetil Tungland said.
BP said it was also still considering sending the gas to central Europe instead of to Italy and that the Nabucco and SEEP pipeline projects were still in the running for that option.
A spokesman for the Nabucco consortium said that “negotiations between the Nabucco shareholders and the Shah Deniz II consortium are ongoing ... We are confident that Nabucco submitted the most competitive solution for the southern corridor.”
However, critics say that is too expensive and that there is not enough non-Russian gas available to fill such a big pipeline.
Gas News | Caspian
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