Azerbaijan goes into partnership with TAP

The State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) President Rovnag Ibrahim Abdullayev has said they would become a partner with the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) with a share of 20 percent. Abdullayev said oil companies BP and TOTAL would also join partnership with TAP, BP with 20 percent share and TOTAL with 10 percent. Alternative to TAP,  Nabucco-West pipeline project, which is a proposed natural gas pipeline from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to Austria, will be carried out after TAP is completed, Abdullayev stated, which he said would be possible after 2020. Shah Deniz consortium confirmed on June 28 that TAP was selected to transport Shah Deniz II gas to Europe, defeating the rival Nabucco West project. TAP is a pipeline project to transport natural gas from the Caspian sea (Azerbaijan), starting from Greece via Albania and the Adriatic Sea to Italy and further to Western Europe. The TAP pipeline, stretching 870 kilometres (540 miles), is expected to start flowing in 2019 with a capacity of 10 million cubic meters of gas per year.