Geography of Azerbaijani gas to be widely marketed

The Ukraine stakes on self-sufficiency with “blue fuel”

The European Union hopes for a noticeable decrease of dependence on Russian gas supplies in the medium term perspective. This requires the active work of the Southern Gas Corridor and development of shale gas in a number of European countries.Lets note, the choice of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline project (TAP) by Azerbaijan doesn’t mean supply of "blue fuel" only to the countries, through which this pipeline will be laid.
After the failure of the Nabucco project of the Austrian concern OMV, the European Commission considers a cut-down version of the project pipeline along the Danube, Natural Gas Europe reports.
 

"The infrastructure along the Danube will be called not Nabucco West, it can also have other investors, but it continues to be an important project, because we expect that Romania will become not only a major gas market, but also an exporter of offshore and shale gas," – the European Commissioner for Energy, Gunther Oettinger said. According to him, the European Commission also welcomes the TAP project – the rival of Nabucco, through which the transportation of Azerbaijani gas from Turkey to southern Europe via Greece and Albania will be carried out, but  alternative infrastructure is also necessary. "The choice between TAP and Nabucco has been made, the decision is made. The most important factor - is that there is gas that will be supplied from Azerbaijan to the European gas market. As they say, the way is open,"- the Commissioner noted.
As it was previously reported, the fund “Connecting Europe”, created by the European Union in the amount of 5.85 billion euro can provide the financing of 248 cross-border projects through until 2020; they will have benefit in the form of accelerated planning and approval process for a period not exceeding three years, as well as effective procedures of environmental risks assessment.
Bulgaria fully supports the TAP project, which is intended to transport gas from the Caspian region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy and then - to Western Europe, the Bulgarian President, Rosen Plevneliev said during the Ixth World meeting of Bulgarian media, answering for the question of the Trend’s correspondent. "Recently, it was decided that just TAP would deliver gas to Europe. We don’t think that Bulgaria lost anything due to that decision. We consider this as a great opportunity and we fully support this project," - the President noted. According to him, Bulgaria hopes for the speedy implementation of the pipeline construction project.
In addition, he emphasized that gas, which would be transported via TAP, may be also delivered to South-East Europe and the Balkan countries. According to the President, Bulgaria has necessary interconnectors with Macedonia and Serbia, and the construction of interconnectors with Greece and Turkey is also planned.