Offshorestaff
BAKU,Azerbaijan– BP has explained the decision to select the proposed Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) as a southern European export route for gas from the Shah Deniz Phase 2 development in the CaspianSea.
According to Al Cook, BP’s vice president for Shah Deniz development, “the selection of TAP as our option for thesouthern route to Italy should be considered final. The Shah Deniz consortium reviewed all of the Southern Gas Corridor projects on a set of eight selection criteria which were agreed last year.
“TAP was chosen as the southern route because it met the technical, commercial, and other requirements best. We have been especially pleased by the level of openness and cooperation we have seen from TAP. This helps build trust.”
The Shah Deniz partners are now working on thefront-end engineering and design of the project.
“In terms of export route selection,” Cook said, “the next step is to make a selection for the Central European route by the end of June. For this route we are currently considering two options - SEEP and Nabucco West, anew proposal recently provided by Nabucco.
“We are pleased to see the continued progress of these options and are waiting for formal submissions from them by 16th May.
“This will enable us to make a fully informed decision for Central European route in June. Once that has been done, we’ll then work with the winner of the Central European route and TAP to develop these projects further. We expect to make a final route selection ahead of mid-2013.”
5/7/2012
