US State Department’s special envoy on energy: Even though there are no American companies in TAP project, we have still made this a US government priority
Baku, July 19, AZERTAC
“There’s been an American involvement in TAP because the US government has championed this project from Azerbaijan, through Turkey and Greece and Albania and inside Italy. I’ve spent much more time on this one project than any other project I’ve ever worked on. Even though there are no American companies in that project, we have still made this a US government priority,” said Amos Hochstein, the US State Department’s special envoy on energy.
“That’s why I was here in Thessaloniki for the groundbreaking of TAP. When it comes to the floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), this is an idea in Alexandropoli that we have been pushing for a very long time. I believe that it could have American gas coming to it, because it would be ready by the time that we’ve just begun to export,” he added.
TAP is an 878-kilometer pipeline that will transport Caspian natural gas from the Greek-Turkish border to Italy via Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea. It will require as much as 526,000 tons of steel. TAP’s shareholders are BP (20%), SOCAR (20%), Snam (20%), Fluxys (19%), Enagás (16%) and Axpo (5%). The project is being implemented by the Trans Adriatic Pipeline AG, which is headquartered in Switzerland.
