Concluded on the margins of the UN’s General Assembly meeting in New York, and in the presence of representatives from the US government, the MoU provides TAP with the necessary political support to continue its commercial activities in Italy. Next steps will be to complete regulatory approvals.
Kjetil Tungland, TAP’s Managing Director, said: “We would like to thank the Italian, Greek and Albanian governments for this very clear demonstration of political support for TAP. This is another great step forward for the project and is testament to TAP’s commercial and technical strengths and the significant benefits that it will bring to these countries.
“Today’s signing follows a number of major milestones that TAP has achieved this year, including being the first pipeline to be selected by the Shah Deniz Consortium in February, a Co-operation Agreement with the Consortium in June and the Funding Agreement with BP, SOCAR and Total that was signed in August. We are working to further progress the project in the coming months.”
TAP will take natural gas from the giant Shah Deniz II development in Azerbaijan, via Greece and Albania, across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy, allowing further transport into Western Europe. Designed to expand the transportation capacity from 10 - 20 billion m3/yr, TAP will open up the so-called Southern Gas Corridor, which will enhance Europe’s energy security by contributing to the diversification of the region’s gas supplies.
The project is designed to expand transportation capacity from 10 to 20 billion m3/yr. TAP also envisages physical reverse flow of up to 80% and the option to develop natural gas storage facilities in Albania to further ensure security of supply.
TAP’s transportation solution will be approximately 800 km in length (approximately: Greece 478 km; Albania 204 km; offshore Adriatic Sea 105 km; Italy 5 km). Transport will begin near the Greek-Turkish border (Komotini), cross Albania and the Adriatic Sea, and connect with the Italian natural gas distribution system near San Foca in Italy.
TAP’s shareholders are EGL of Switzerland (42.5%), Norway’s Statoil (42.5%) and E.ON Ruhrgas of Germany (15%).
Adapted from press release by Cecilia Rehn.