(MENAFN- Trend News Agency ) Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.27
By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:
The European Commission has sent a letter to the European Investment Bank (EIB) calling on allocating a loan to two sections of Azerbaijani gas pipeline project, Trend learned from the European Commission.
A letter from the European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic and climate and energy commissioner Miguel Arias Canete to EIB president Werner Hoyer made clear the importance of the project to the EU.
Reportedly, the bank is considering loans in excess of 2 billion euros to two sections of the pipeline, from Azerbaijan to western Turkey and from Greece to southern Italy (TANAP and TAP).
The letter, dated 13 July 2017, said the project was 'vital and irreplaceable' for the diversification of EU gas sources and security of supply.
'Europe's commitment must therefore not wane,' Sefcovic and Canete wrote, adding they hoped the EIB and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) would give financial backing to the pipeline 'thereby to exemplify that European Union patronage over the Southern Gas Corridor continues'.
The EBRD Board of Directors approved $500 million worth loan for TANAP on Oct. 18, 2017. The loan was issued for a period of 18 years.
TANAP project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field to the western borders of Turkey. The gas will be delivered to Turkey in 2018 and after completion of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline's construction the gas will be delivered to Europe in early 2020.
The length of TANAP is 1,850 kilometers with an initial capacity of 16 billion cubic meters of gas. Around six billion cubic meters of this gas is meant to be delivered to Turkey, with the remaining volume to be supplied to Europe.
TAP project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz Stage 2 to the EU countries. The pipeline will be connected to the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) on the Turkish-Greek border, run through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Italy's south. TAP's shareholders are BP (20 percent), State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (20 percent), Snam (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagas (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).
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