Albania’s state oil company, Albpetrol, has applied to reserve to 1.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year from the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, TAP.
Albania’s inter-institutional commission for cooperation with the TAP pipeline on Monday said Albpetrol had launched a bid in the first booking phase for the pipeline on May 14.
The TAP AG, the consortium that controls implementation of Trans-Adriatic Pipeline project, is expected to review the application.
Albania does not have a national gas network and the government plans to use allocations from the TAP pipeline to gasify the country and connect it to the regional grid in the Balkans.
The Trans Adriatic Pipeline, a natural gas pipeline project, will transport gas from the Caspian region via Greece and Albania across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy and further into Western Europe.
The approximately 870-kilometre-long TAP 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.
TAP will open up a new so-called Southern Gas Corridor to Europe and establish a new market outlet for natural gas from the Caspian Sea and beyond.
TAP’s routing will facilitate the gas supply to several Southeastern European countries, including Bulgaria, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and others.
TAP’s landfall in Italy, the third largest gas market in Europe, provides multiple opportunities for the further transport of Caspian natural gas to some of the largest European markets, such as Germany, France, the UK, Switzerland and Austria.
Albania is expected to benefit by up to 2 billion euro in investments only through the construction phase of the pipeline. The project is also expected to enhance the country’s energy supply and its strategic position as an energy hub.
