Page 17 - EurOil Week 01 2021

EurOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT EurOil

Azerbaijan launches gas flows to Europe

AZERBAIJAN AZERBAIJAN has commenced commercial bcm per year each.
natural gas supplies to Europe via the Trans Adri- “The Southern Gas Corridor will strengthen
Italy is set to receive 8 atic Pipeline (TAP), according to its energy min- the system of global energy security. It has con-
bcm per year of gas, istry. The shipments mean new competition for nected the Caspian region to Europe,” the Azer-
while Bulgaria and Russia's Gazprom, Europe's main supplier with baijani energy ministry said in a statement cited
Greece will each get 1 a one-third market share. by Reuters.
bcm per year. TAP represents the third and final section "The start of gas deliveries to Europe from
of the $40bn Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), Azerbaijan is the culmination of years of work
which stretches 3,500 km from Azerbaijan by many thousands of people from all the coun-
to southern Italy via Georgia, Turkey, Greece tries involved – the workforce, communities,
and Albania as well as the Adriatic Sea. The companies, the government of Azerbaijan and
project received ample EU support, as part of other regional and international governments,
Brussels' effort to diversify away from Russian and SOCAR and our partners," BP's regional
gas. vice president for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Tur-
The gas comes from Azerbaijan's giant Shah key, Gary Jones, said. "This is a truly world-class
Deniz field operated by BP. At full capacity ship- project in all respects."
ments via TAP will reach 10bn cubic metres TAP's shareholders are BP (20%), SOCAR
(bcm) per year. Italy has agreed to take 8 bcm, (20%), Snam (20%), Fluxys (19%), Enagas (16%)
while Greece and Bulgaria are set to receive 1 and Axpo (5%).™

EC backs Spanish LNG

bunkering initiative

SPAIN THE European Commission has backed grades. It produces virtually no sulphur oxides,
the construction of an LNG bunkering ves- 80-90% less nitrogen oxides and 20-30% less car-
The EC funds will cover sel to serve in the Spanish port of Algeciras bon dioxide, Enagas noted.
20% of the cost of the with a €11mn ($13.4mn) loan, the country’s There has been a surge in LNG bunkering in
project. LNG terminal operator Enagas said in late recent years, driven partly by stricter Interna-
December. tional Maritime Organisation (IMO) rules on
The bunkering barge is due to enter service emissions. According to Norwegian classifica-
in 2023, and will be loaded with LNG at the Ena- tion society DNV/GL, there are now 175 LNG-
gas terminal in Huelva, and then either supply fuelled ships in operation in the world, serviced
the gas directly to end consumers or transfer it by 20 LNG bunkering barges.
to smaller bunkering vessels. Its storage capacity LNG bunkering operations in Spain
will be 12,500 cubic metres. increased fourfold year on year in January to
The EC’s funds, drawn from its Connecting November 2020. And the number of Spanish
Europe infrastructure facility, will cover 20% of ports that can supply ships with LNG has risen
the project’s cost. Brussels provided a further to 11, versus six in 2019.
€15mn in support to an Enagas-led bunkering The port of Algeciras has been providing
project in Barcelona last year. Both schemes are LNG bunkering since 2012, but so far has only
part of the LNG Hive2 initiative led by the Span- used the truck-to-ship method. Seven truck-to-
ish Ports Authority. ship bunkering operations took place at the port
Advocates for LNG’s use in shipping point in 2020, supplying four times more gas than in
to its reduced emissions compared to fuel oil the previous year. ™

Week 01 07•January•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P17