ITGI: We Are Only Pipeline on Schedule for Funding Before Shah Deniz Commences
The ITGI pipeline is the only pipeline capable of ensuring a final investment decision before Shah Deniz production can begin, CEO of IGI Poseidon and Head of Gas Infrastructure at Edison, Elio Ruggeri has said.
Today, Mr. Ruggeri told the European Gas Conference in Vienna that ITGI was scheduled to complete its final investment decision (FID) by 2013, ahead of competitors for gas supply from Shah Deniz.
"In order to secure Shah Deniz II production start-up in 2017, it’s essential that the selected project can take a final investment decision by 2013," he said.
"As acknowledged by many energy experts ITGI, having completed the most relevant permitting and regulatory procedures, is the only Southern Corridor project capable of securing a final investment decision in accordance with the Shah Deniz II schedule. ITGI project’s maturity is an asset for both Europe , as it secures quick availability of Azeri gas, and for the Shah Deniz consortium, as it reduces the possible risk of delays in the start-up of production."
ITGI (Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy) is one of three pipelines in the running for the supply of Azeri gas, with Nabucco and TAP also in consideration. Yesterday, it was confirmed that a final decision on the best pipeline to transport the gas would be made in the first quarter of this year.
"We are moving towards hopefully forming a recommendation, certainly by the end of the first quarter," Steve Garlick, BP Shah Deniz Development's marketing manager told the same conference.
However, Mr. Garlick also said that no one pipeline consortium was currently ahead of the others.
"Everyone is still in the running, very much," Reuters news agency reports him as saying after the conference."None of the three projects is sufficiently de-risked that we would want to choose one of them. Each of them we feel needs to do some work."
He also told reporters that the company would resort to using its own South-East Europe Pipeline (SEEP) if a decision could not be reached on the best pipeline operator in the first quarter. This would give all parties time to sort out any significant issues, he said.
"We have put a lot of resources behind our own SEEP project just to make sure that we do have an option when we get to the middle of 2013 where you have to press the button on $15 billion plus of expenditure (for the Shah Deniz project)," Reuters reports him as saying.