Italy's natural gas infrastructure company Snam and Albania’s gas
infrastructure operator Albgaz agreed to collaborate in the development
of Albania's gas market, the company announced on Monday.
Both
signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for developing collaboration
to support the start and development of the country's gas market and
infrastructure system that will be launched when the Trans Adriatic
Project (TAP) pipeline transverses the country.
The TAP project
aims to connect the Trans Anatolian Natural gas Pipeline (TANAP) at the
Greece-Turkey border and cross northern Greece, Albania and the Adriatic
Sea before going onshore in southern Italy, where it will link up with
the Snam-operated Italian natural gas network.
The entire project
will be 878 kilometers in length with an initial capacity of 10 billion
cubic meters per year to transfer Azerbaijan’s natural gas to several
European markets.
TAP is currently in its construction phase, which started in 2016.
"The
collaboration is targeting, inter alia, to support Albgaz in the
development of the infrastructure necessary to launch the gas market and
the implementation of best practices typical of the activities run by
Snam," the statement read.
Albgaz was set up in January 2017 and is tasked with developing and managing infrastructure for the Albanian gas market.
(Anadolu Agency)