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Shah Deniz consortium excludes ITGI as European gas link

20 February 2012 14:52 (UTC +04:00)

The consortium has excluded the Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy, or ITGI, pipeline project from those being considered to carry the gas to Europe, energy giant BP PLC (BP), which has a key role in Shah Deniz, said Monday. This means that another, similar project called Trans-Adriatic Pipeline will be negotiating exclusively to carry the gas from the Caspian to Italy.

"The SOCAR-led [Azerbaijan’s state-controlled energy company] negotiating team has made the decision to undertake exclusive negotiations with TAP on a southern pipeline route through Italy," a spokesman for BP told Dow Jones Newswires. The decision means that ITGI’s proposal "will not be considered further," he explained.

However, two other projects, Nabucco and the South East Europe Pipeline--both designed to carry the gas to Central Europe--have not been excluded.

BP’s spokesman said the consortium’s next decision will be to narrow down the other alternatives and decide between the Nabucco and a similar project called South East Europe Pipeline proposal, which is part-supported by BP. "Once that is done, it will be possible to make a decision between a northern [to Central Europe] or southern [to Italy] pipeline route," said the spokesman.