SOCAR plans feasibility study on Albania, Montenegro gas project

Albania and Azerbaijan signed a preliminary agreement in December 2014 to cooperate in developing an Albanian gas grid as the Balkan country leads construction of the European section of a project to bring Azeri gas to Europe from the Caspian Sea.

The so-called southern corridor will bring gas to Turkey and Greece, as well as to Italy via Albania and the Adriatic Sea.

"We were working on Albania's gasification project. Montenegro has recently joined this process and we now plan to prepare the feasibility study on this major project," SOCAR's president, Rovnag Abdullayev, told reporters on Thursday.

Azeri gas could reach southern Europe by the end of this decade through the proposed Trans Adriatic Pipeline and the Trans Anatolian Pipeline.

These pipelines would carry billions of cubic metres of gas a year from Shah Deniz II, one of the world's largest gas fields, which is being developed by a BP-led consortium. 

(Reuters)