Brussels, 28/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - The consortium Shah Deniz II has decided in favour of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) in preference to the Nabucco West pipeline for transporting gas from Azerbaijan to the European Union.
On Friday 28 June, the European Commission welcomed the choice of the Azeri gas consortium Shah Deniz II in favour of the TAP gas pipeline for its supplies of gas to Europe bypassing Russia. “This is a door opener for a direct link to the Caspian sea”, said José Manuel Barroso in a press release, hailing it as “a milestone in strengthening the energy security of our Union. I am confident that today's decision (…) will provide further momentum to the full and rapid realisation of the entire Southern Gas Corridor”, he added.
For his part, Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger welcomed the “definite commitment” of Azerbaijan to supply its gas to Europe “directly”. “Whether the system consists of two gas pipelines or one single pipeline does not make any difference in terms of energy security. We now have a new partner for gas, and I am confident that we will receive more gas in the future”, he added. The fact remains, however, that Shah Deniz II's rejection of the Nabucco project, which he has supported from his first term of office, came as a blow to President Barroso.
The consortium Shah Deniz II, made up of the British BP, Soccar of Azerbaijan, Norway's Statoil and Total of France, which holds the licence to operate the reserves of this second gasfield with a capacity of 16 billion cubic metres a year, gave its preference to the project run by Statoil (42.5%), with Switzerland's Axpo (42.5%) and E.ON of Germany (15%). The TAP will connect the border between Greece and Turkey with Italy under the Adriatic, via Albania. Initially, it will deliver 10 billion cubic metres a year to the Italian market from 2019. The TAP will be connected to the Caspian Sea via the Transantolien gas pipeline, the TANAP, which is owned by the Turkish energy companies Botas and TPAO (20%) and Azerbaijan's Soccar (80%).
Although it has been shortened since Turkey has built its own gas pipeline, the TANAP, and less expensive than initially forecast, Nabucco, the project of shareholder energy groups which are all members of the EU countries - Austria's OMV, the German RWE, MOL of Hungary, Transgaz of Romania and Turkey's Botas, plus France's GDF Suez - and by the Commission, therefore failed to win over the shareholders of Shah Deniz II. WithAzerbaijan has intimating that this project had not been shelved, the Nabucco Consortium said on Friday that it was “confident (…) of developing opportunities on the basis of alternative sources of gas” to respond to the energy diversification needs of the countries of central and southern Europe. (EH/transl.fl)