Azerbaijan Open to Italy's Snam Taking Stake in TAP

Azerbaijan is open to Italy’s Snam taking a stake in the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project, President Ilham Aliyev said on Thursday, reported news agency Reuters.

“Why not? If someone would allocate its shares to other companies I don't see any problems,' Aliyev said when asked about Snam's possible investment in TAP.

Snam CEO told Reuters in an interview in June the company was ready to evaluate buying 20 percent of TAP.

TAP will transport natural gas from Azerbaijan to Europe. Connecting with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) at the Greek-Turkish border, TAP will cross Northern Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before coming ashore in Southern Italy to connect to the Italian natural gas network.

The project is currently in its implementation phase and is preparing for construction of the pipeline, which is planned to begin in 2016 and likely to be complete by 2020.

Once built, TAP will offer a direct route opening up the Southern Gas Corridor.

TAP's current shareholders are BP (20 percent), the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) (20 percent), Norway's Statoil (20 percent), Belgium's Fluxys (19 percent), Spain's Enagas (16 percent) and Swiss company Axpo (5 percent).