Before the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) was built Italian companies purchased energy at a higher price than their European counterparts
Vugar Veisalov, head of the external relations department of the TAP consortium, said this in an interview with Euractiv.
The new pipeline, which will also supply gas to Greece and Bulgaria, will provide greater price flexibility, he said.
The volumes sent to Italy (about 8.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year) will satisfy about 12% of the gas demand.
Veisalov noted that TAP’s initial capacity – about 10 bcm per year – has already been transferred to companies transporting natural gas from the Shah Deniz field in accordance with gas transportation contracts signed in 2013 and TPA (Third Party Access) provisions provided by the relevant regulators: “TAP has reserved about 5 percent of the original capacity for short-term order. This is in addition to the capacity already ordered. The short-term capacity is reserved for a 25-year operating period.”
As a reminder, the other day, four and a half years after the start of construction work in the Greek city of Thessaloniki, commercial operations have begun on the 878-kilometer TAP gas transmission system. A multinational industrial team of professionals worked diligently and efficiently under challenging conditions to bring this strategic part of the energy infrastructure into operation on time.
TAP is the European branch of the Southern Gas Corridor, a connecting project through which 10 bcm of natural gas will be transported from Azerbaijan to European markets. The pipeline’s potential makes it possible to double its throughput, up to 20 bcm per year.
Caspian Barrel
