Trans Adriatic Pipeline

The Trans Adriatic Pipeline consortium announced on Wednesday it is investing 9 million euros in the upgrade of utility vehicles in northern Greece.

At a press conference held in Thessaloniki, TAP AG said it will donate 92 such vehicles to local communities across the three regions of northern Greece that the pipeline goes through.

Gas from Turkmenistan could be transferred to other countries through Turkey once the Southern Gas Corridor is commissioned, the head of the Transit Petroleum Pipeline Department at Turkey's Energy and Natural Resources Ministry said May 30.

BP plans to complete by mid-2018 the Georgian section of a $40-billion strategic pipeline bringing Caspian gas from Azerbaijan into Europe, the British energy company's country manager for Georgia said.

Greece's gas grid operator (DESFA) on Thuresday signed a memorandum of understanding with Albgaz in Tirana.

DESFA announced that the agreement provides for the operation and maintenance of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) on Albanian soil, as well as the transfer of know-how from the Greek company to newly formed Albgaz.

The deal signed on Monday between Greece, Israel, Cyprus and Italy in Tel Aviv for the creation of the Eastern Mediterranean (EastMed) gas pipeline, is, according to sources, a reaction to the competing Nord Stream II pipeline connecting Germany and Russia.

Albania hopes to be a major player in the distribution of gas in the region as a result of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, TAP, which will start bringing natural gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe in 2020.

The project, work on which will start within the next three years, will run through Albania with 215 kilometres on land and 37 km offshore in the Adriatic Sea.

The Southern Gas Corridor will start pumping gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe by 2020, its backers said on Thursday, despite the risk of delays to this option for reducing dependence on Russia.

Politicians and ministers meeting in Baku backed the $40 billion, 3,500-kilometer chain of pipelines, a step toward curbing Russia's one-third share of Europe's natural gas market.

Azerbaijan aims to finalize the Southern Gas Corridor by 2020, Azerbaijani President İlham Aliyev has said.

The Southern Gas Corridor includes the South Caucasus Pipeline, Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).      

Gazprom's bid to tap into a pipeline meant to wean Europe off Russian gas threatens to undermine a pillar of European energy policy and slow plans to develop rival deposits in the east Mediterranean.

As the European Union struggles against the "iron embrace" of Russian pipelines, it has made opening a new Southern GasCorridor to carry gas from Azerbaijan by 2020 a priority.

The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) that will take gas from Azerbaijan to Europe is in a position to offer capacity on the line via so-called "open seasons" to gauge interest among potential customers, senior TAP executives said on Wednesday.