Azerbaijan to proceed with TAP extension

Azerbaijan will press ahead with plans to feed natural gas into an extended pipeline network to southern Europe, a senior official said, even as conflict rages for a sixth week in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. 

Elshad Nassirov, vice president of Azeri national energy company Socar, told Reuters the $5 billion extension of the Southern Gas Corridor network would be ready this month to take up to 10 billion cubic meters a year from the Shah Deniz field.

“In just two weeks, a new piece of infrastructure will be ready,” Nassirov said, referring to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline.

This pipeline, also known as TAP, is far from Azerbaijan, stretching 878 kilometers from Turkey’s border with Greece across the mountains of Albania and the Adriatic Sea to Italy.

Its operation, however, will require Azerbaijan to pump additional volumes into the system from its massive Shah Deniz project in the Caspian Sea.

[Reuters]