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The Trans Adriatic Pipeline announced on August 9 that it has reached an agreement with members of the Shah Deniz Consortium developing the huge Azeri gasfield to secure funding for the pipeline project. The agreement also includes an option for the Shah Deniz shareholders to take up to 50% equity in TAP.

TAP is competing with Nabucco West for the right to transport Shah Deniz gas from Turkey into the EU. The pipeline will run via Greece and Albania, across the Adriatic Sea to Southern Italy, and further into Western Europe, and is designed to expand transportation capacity from 10bn to 20bn cubic metres per year (cm/y), the company said in a press release.

The Trans-Anatolian pipeline (TANAP) won the right to carry 16bn cm/y of gas from the second phase of Shah Deniz - being developed by BP, Statoil, Total, Lukoil, Naftiran Intertrade and Turkiye Petrolleri, alongside the Socar - to the Turkish border with Greece in June. Shah Deniz will decide on a northern or southern route into Europe next year.

The deeper involvement of the Shah Deniz consortium could offer TAP an advantage in the final routing decision; Norway's Statoil was already involved in TAP, alongside EGL and E.ON Ruhrgas. At the same time, in June, Nabucco West beat out the BP-backed South-East Europe Pipeline for the right to compete in the final decision.

"Our cooperation with Shah Deniz is now even closer and more far-reaching than before," said Kjetil Tungland, TAP's managing director. "This agreement will strengthen our continued working relationship in the run-up to the final routing decision. We remain confident of a positive outcome."