EU throws weight behind TAP and Caspian Sea gas

EU throws weight behind TAP: The EU this week vowed to use all its political weight to expedite the construction of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) so that its member state will be able to source its gas supplies from Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan as well as from Russia.  Europe was tired of wasting each summer negotiating the following winter’s gas supplies, EU Energy Union chief  Maroš Shefchovich  said this week. “The world’s largest economy should not have such problems in the twenty-first century. “
Although Russia would remain a “very important supplier” for the European Union,  Shefchovich predicts that its  significance  would decrease after 2020 when the pipelines running from the Caspian Sea would be able to deliver as much as 20bn m³ to Europe each year. Laid across Northern Greece and Albania and on the bed of the Adriatic before connecting up with Europe’s natural gas network on the heel of Italy, TAP  will be a key link in a 3,500km gas delivery chain stretching from Azerbaijan via the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) to  the EU.  Construction on TAP is due to begin next year.