Intergovernmental agreement on tap to be signed on February 13

On February 13, 2013 in Athens Greece, Italy and Albania will sign the intergovernmental agreement to build Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), ITAR-TACC quoted Dimitris Avramopoulos, Greek Foreign Minister, as saying on Saturday.

The forthcoming deal was announced after the meeting between Avramopoulos and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov during the Munich Security Conference.

TAP will be used to deliver Azerbaijan gas extracted during development of the Second Phase of the Shah-Deniz field on the Caspian Sea shelf to Europe via Turkey. The resources of the Shah-Deniz field are estimated at 1.2 trillion cub.m. The gas extraction within the Second Phase is expected to begin in 2018. 10 billion out of 16 billion cub.m. of gas a year extracted on this field will be transported to Europe.

478 km of TAP will lie on the territory of Greece from Komotini city on the northeast of the country, cross Albania (209 km) and reach Brindizi port city on the south of Italy via the Adriatic Sea (105 km). The project will be implemented by Swiss energy company Axpo (42.5%), Norwegian Statoil (42.5%) and German E.On Ruhrgas concern (15%).

The talks on the details of the agreement have not been completed yet, reported Athens-based news agency citing the sources from the Greek Foreign Ministry. The representative of the Azerbaijani government is expected to attend the signing ceremony.-0-