BAKU
Azerbaijan increased natural gas supplies to Europe through the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), a segment of the Southern Gas Corridor, from its giant Shan Deniz offshore gas field by 42 percent in April compared to March, TAP said.
Azerbaijan started commercial natural gas supplies to Europe from the second stage of Shah Deniz project via its $40-billion Southern Gas Corridor in December 2020, when the corridor’s last part, the TAP, was launched. The project is aimed at reducing Europe’s dependence on natural gas supplies from Russia, which currently controls 34 percent of the continent’s gas market.
The Kipoi point of entry between Turkey and Greece received 26 million cubic meters of natural gas a day. Italy imported 22 million cubic meters of, gas, while Greece got 4 million cubic meters.
Experts say that the sharp increase in the supply of gas from Azerbaijan to Europe may be caused by the fact that Italy has begun to pump gas to storage facilities until the next heating season.
European traders say TAP is technically capable of supplying 33 million cubic meters of gas per day and has a contract to transport 31 million cubic meters per day.
The BP-led consortium, which develops Shah Deniz project in Azerbaijan, has been pumping gas from the offshore field’s first phase since 2006, delivering more than 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) a year of gas to Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.
The second phase started output in 2018, adding 16 bcm of gas production capacity at its peak to bring total capacity to 26 bcm.
Azerbaijan aims to supply European gas markets with 10 bcm of gas a year, including 8 bcm to Italy and a combined 2 bcm to Greece and Bulgaria.
Apart from BP and Azerbaijan’s state energy firm SOCAR, participants of the Shah Deniz consortium are Turkey’s TPAO, Malaysia’s Petronas, Russia’s LUKoil and Iran’s NIOC.
The 878 km TAP pipeline connects to the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline on the Turkish-Greek border in Kipoi, crosses Greece, Albania, and the Adriatic Sea, and reaches Italy’s southern coast.
On the first day of the project, which started the flow of natural gas to Europe on December 31, 2020, TAP pumped 10.9 million cubic meters of natural gas to Europe.
After the commencement of gas flows via TAP in December 2020, a total of one billion cubic meters of natural gas from Azerbaijan was transported to Europe via the Greek interconnection point of Kipoi, where TAP connects to the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP).
TAP can stimulate gas supplies to countries in southeast Europe through interconnectors to be built in the future.
TAP’s shareholders are SOCAR (20 percent), BP (20 percent), Snam (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagás (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).