TAP trumpets 'tremendous progress'

• Tweet

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- A group in charge of the planned Trans-Adriatic gas pipeline boasted of resounding support during last week's economic meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

"We met in Davos to discuss the tremendous progress that TAP has made in the last few months," TAP Managing Director Kjetil Tungland said in a statement.

The planned 320-mile pipeline is meant to carry as much as 353 billion cubic feet of natural gas per year from Azeri areas of the Caspian Sea to European consumers.

Rovnag Abdullayev, president of the State Oil Co. of Azerbaijan Republic, said he was "very pleased" that host countries Albania, Greece and Italy were taking the necessary steps to make the pipeline a reality.

The project, backed by Switzerland's Axpo, Norway's Statoil and German company E.ON, is part of the Southern Corridor of transit networks meant to ease Europe's dependence on Russian natural gas.

TAP is up against pipeline Nabucco West to secure natural gas from Azerbaijan. A decision from the BP-led consortium managing Azeri reserves is expected by June.

"As shareholders in TAP, we continue to strive to conclude all the necessary agreements with the Shah Deniz Consortium," said Axpo Chairman Hans Schulz.