Baku to secure TAP financing in full in April
Azerbaijan expects to secure in April full financing for the Trans Adriatic Gas Pipeline (TAP), seen as an alternative for Russian gas supplies to Europe, Azeri Energy Minister Natig Aliyev said on Monday.
The Southern Gas Corridor project, of which TAP is a part, is expected to cost around $45 billion.
“The talks are under way. The issues of TAP financing will be completely solved on April 28,” Aliyev told reporters, declining to say why that exact date was chosen.
TAP’s shareholders are BP, Azeri state company SOCAR, Snam, Fluxys, Enagas and Axpo.
TAP is a part of the project that is designed to transport 16 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz II field in the Caspian Sea, one of the world’s largest gas fields, by the end of the decade.
The 870-kilometer pipeline will connect with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) near the Turkish-Greek border at Kipoi, cross Greece and Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before reaching southern Italy.
Last week, Aliyev said that construction on the TAP would begin within March.
[Reuters]
