ECONOMY

BP, Socar and Total to buy 50% of Trans-Adriatic Pipeline

BP Plc and State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan, or Socar, will each buy 20 percent of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline selected last month to export Azeri natural- gas to southern Italy from the Turkish-Greek border.

Total SA, a partner in Azerbaijan’s $25 billion Shah Deniz gas project together with BP, Socar and Statoil ASA, will get a 10 percent stake in the pipeline project known as TAP, Socar President Rovnaq Abdullayev told reporters today in Baku, the Azeri capital.

TAP, being developed by Norway’s Statoil, Switzerland’s Axpo and Germany’s EON SE, beat out competition from the OMV AG- led Nabucco West project for the right to export 10 billion cubic meters of Azeri gas a year to Europe. The fuel will flow to the Turkish-EU border via the BP-led South Caucasus Pipeline and the Trans-Anatolia Pipeline before being fed into TAP.

The EU is looking to Shah Deniz, estimated to hold 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas, and other deposits in the Caspian region to diversify supply away from Russia, which meets a quarter of its demand.

Abdullayev said a shareholders’ agreement on TAP will be signed by the end of the year and construction will start next year.

[Bloomberg]

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