Greece requested compensation for TAP

Greece requested compensation for transit through its territory of Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP). The Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis met with the Ambassador of Azerbaijan in Greece Rahman Mustafaev, Vice President of the Azerbaijan State Oil Company Elshad Nasirova, PhD and Vice President of the British company BP for “Southern Gas Corridor” Joe Murphy, passed Monday. At the meeting it was agreed to establish committees to examine the issue of providing Greece compensation from the consortium for the construction of the pipeline.

The Greek minister stressed his country’s need to receive compensation benefits except those concerning the municipalities through which the pipeline will pass. The MP from the coalition partner – the party Independent Greeks Gabriel Avramidis, commented that the previous Greek government has supported TAP gas pipeline project, although it was not provided for payment of transit fees of the Greek state. The coalition of the Radical Left SYRIZA before the parliamentary elections said that Greece must enter into consortium building the pipeline to receive payments for gas transit and participate in the construction of the pipeline itself.

Far from Athens have raised only the issue of compensation benefits from the passage of the pipeline. The agreement for the construction of TAP was signed on 13th February 2013 in Athens Greece, Albania and Italy. The pipeline is planned to transport natural gas from the area of ​​the Caspian Sea through Turkey to Europe, passing through Greece, then in the Adriatic Sea reaches Italy.

TAP pipeline was selected by the consortium, which is developing the huge gas field Shah Deniz in Azerbaijan at the expense of the Nabucco project. Planned in Greece the length of the pipeline is 478 km, Albania – 209 km, and then 105 kilometers along the Adriatic Sea. The pipeline should be commissioned in 2019 with an initial capacity of 10 billion cubic meters with a possible extension to 20 billion cubic meters.