TAP, TANAP to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russia

He made the remarks at the First International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE) Eurasian Conference being held in Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 30.

He noted that currently the region's dependence on supplies of Russian Gazprom company is very high, and it continues to grow as consumption grows.

In order to reduce dependence of the countries of Southeast Europe, it is also necessary to build Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB), which will make it possible to deliver gas from the TAP pipeline further to Europe, Andriosopoulos said.

Development of the system for supply of the LNG (liquefied natural gas) from different countries will also help to reduce the region's dependence on Russian gas, according to the expert.

Andriosopoulos noted that the global LNG market will continue to grow, and is projected to reach 470 million tons per year by 2030 compared with the current 245 million tons per year.

TANAP project, worth $9.2 billion, envisages transportation of gas of Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz field from Georgian-Turkish border to the western borders of Turkey. The gas will be delivered to Turkey in 2018, and after completion of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline’s (TAP) construction, the gas will be delivered to Europe in early 2020.

TAP's initial capacity will be 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year with the possibility of expanding it to 20 billion cubic meters.