Macedonia seeks to join TAP gas project

Baku. 7 November. REPORT.AZ/ Macedonia is seeking to be part of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project that will transport Azerbaijani gas to Europe, via Greece and Albania.

Report informs citing the BNE Intellinews, Macedonian Energy Resources (MER), a state-owned company which develops gasification projects in Macedonia, has said.

This and other potential new gas projects will enable Macedonia, which currently receives natural gas via Bulgaria, to diversify the supply of natural gas from multiple sources, such as from Russian and Azerbaijani gas projects, which will lead to lower gas import prices.

The idea of joining TAP emerged after MER signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Greece’s gas transmission system operator Desfa on the construction of a gas link between the two countries, which is expected to enable a connection for Macedonia with the TAP project, as well as the Turkish Stream pipeline.

“We have sent a request to join the TAP project and we certainly expect to receive a positive answer in the upcoming period,” MER said.

TAP is the European leg of the Southern Gas Corridor, which aims to connect the EU market to new gas sources. With an initial capacity of 10bn cubic metres of gas per year, the 870km long pipeline will transport gas from the Shah Deniz II field in Azerbaijan to the EU market from 2020. It is one of the major investment projects in Albania, where it is expected to be a main driver of the country’s GDP growth in the coming years.

The TAP route through Albania is approximately 215km onshore and 37km offshore in the Albanian section of the Adriatic Sea, while the length of the pipeline in Greece is approximately 550km.

So far over 50% of steel pipes needed for construction of the project have been delivered in Greece and Albania and by mid-October 12.5% of the route of the TAP route had been cleared in both countries.

TAP’s shareholders are BP (20%), SOCAR (20%), Snam S.p.A. (20%), Fluxys (19%), Enagás (16%) and Axpo (5%).