New energy roads: Trans Adriatic Pipeline Pt.1

The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), is the project of the homonymous company that plans to build and develop the pipeline  which will transfer the natural gas from the Shah Deniz II in Azerbaijan, to Europe, through Greece, Italy and Albania. The company shareholders are the SwissEGL, the Norwegian Statoil and the German E.ON Ruhrgas; the two first hold 42.5% of the shares respectively, while the latter holds 15%. TAP will be the pipeline which will connect Middle East with Europe, opening the “Southern Gas Corridor”.

It is estimated that TAP will have a transportation capacity of approximately 10 bcm per year, depending on demands. Pipeline’s length will be approximately 800 km; 478 km will be in Greek, 204 km in Albanian and 5 km in Italian territory, while 105 km will be across the Adriatic Sea.

On 27th of September, the States of Greece, Italy and Albania, signed a Memorandum of Understanding in New York, providing officially their support towards the project. The three Foreign Ministers, Dimitris Avramopoulos (Greece), Giulio Terzi (Italy) and Edmond Panariti (Albania), along with company representatives, signed this MoU, affirming the necessary backing -in governmental level- of the pipeline construction and proper function.

It is clear that European Union makes efforts to cut its dependence on the Russian gas supplies, by reaching the Caspian Sea reserves and the Azerbaijan development of Shah Deniz through other routes. Russia provides EU with approximately 25% of its needs, so Trans Adriatic Pipeline is expected to be a milestone to the change of this dependence.

Of course, TAP is not the only project of gas transportation at this region. The alternative projects include the Nabucco Pipeline, also known as “Turkey-Austria Pipeline”, which will include Austria, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, the Greece-Italy Pipeline, which will include Greece and Italy, and the South Stream project, that will include Russia, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Italy, Hungary, Austria, Slovenia and Turkey.

Initially posted by Giorgos Dimitriadis on The Pryer, UK.