TAP Countries Give Tripartite Support

The governments of Albania, Greece and Italy have created a special committee to coordinate support for the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), one of two major contenders for the contract to convey gas from the Shah Deniz 2 field off Azerbaijan.

External Affairs Director for TAP, Michael Hoffmann, said the support was a major vote of confidence in his consortium, which is led by Norwegian major Statoil.

TAP is included in the so-called Southern Corridor, a planned network of pipelines meant to offer alternatives to Russian gas for Europe. 

Albania, Greece and Italy are all transit countries for TAP. When the gas supplies arrive in Italy, they will then be transported on to a range of customer countries, according to the plan.

TAP is up against the ambitious Nabucco West pipeline, which is backed by other European countries. Also on Wednesday, the Nabucco website recorded a call by Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania to support his alternative in the Shah Deniz decision.

On Monday the New York Times reported that Hungarian prime minister Mark Orban had said that MOL, his contry's participant in Nabucco West, wanted to withdraw from the project.

A BP-led consortium operating Shah Deniz is due to decide on the successful candidate by June.