New infrastructure for transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe to be ready in two weeks

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

According to Elshad Nassirov, vice-president of Azeri national energy company SOCAR, 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.

The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, or TAP, is far from Azerbaijan, stretching 878 km (546 miles) from Turkey’s border with Greece across the mountains of Albania and the Adriatic Sea to Italy. The length, which was officially announced on June 28, 2013, by the Shah Deniz consortium, is 878 kilometers. Its groundbreaking ceremony was held on May 17, 2016, in Thessaloniki, Greece. Of this, 550 km is in Greece, 215 km in Albania, 105 km in the Adriatic Sea, and 8 km in Italy. The highest point of the route in Albania is 1,800 meters above sea level, and the lowest point on the seabed is 820 meters below sea level.