Greece supports the planned Serbia-Bulgaria interconnector, which links up to the Bulgaria-Greece interconnector and, consequently, the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said at the meeting with his Bulgarian counterpart Nikola Selaković, Report informs, referring to foreign media.
Earlier, SOCAR Vice President for Investments and Marketing Elshad Nasirov said it’s hoped that there will be access to additional markets in the Balkan region in the next stage of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), which will transport Azerbaijani gas to Europe. According to him, an opening of gas delivery to Albania and other countries of the Western Balkans will be held: “We hope for, and look forward to Israeli gas and additional gas volumes from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.”
In the future, gas may also be transported to the Balkan region via the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC). The Western Balkans include countries Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Kosovo.
TAP transports natural gas to Europe from the giant Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea's Azerbaijani sector. The 878 km pipeline connects to the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline on the Turkish-Greek border in Kipoi, crosses Greece, Albania, and the Adriatic Sea, and reaches Italy's southern coast.
On the first day of the project, which started the flow of natural gas to Europe on December 31, 2020, TAP pumped 10.9 million cubic meters of natural gas to Europe.
TAP can stimulate gas supplies to Southeast European countries through interconnectors to be built in the future. For example, Bulgaria will strengthen supply security by meeting 33% of its natural gas needs via TAP. In turn, it will increase the penetration of natural gas in the country. TAP's outlets in Greece and Albania and Italy also open up opportunities for transporting Azerbaijani gas to other European countries.
TAP's shareholders are SOCAR (20%), BP (20%), Snam (20%), Fluxys (19%), Enagás (16%) and Axpo (5%).