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Weekly Lists
June 21, 2019 www.intellinews.com I Page 25
bne:
Infrastructure
Montenegro, Italy to launch industrial use of submarine power link at end-2019
Kazakhstan looks to invest in Iranian ports to boost grain exports
Montenegro and Italy will put their submarine power link into industrial operation at the end of 2019, broadcaster RTCG reported, quoting Vladimir Bojicic, advisor of the executive director of Montenegrin grid operator CGES.
Last month, Montenegro and Italy started to use the interconnector. The project for its construction is being jointly implemented by CGES and Italy’s Terna. The total investment was estimated at around €1bn.
Initially, the project was supposed to be completed by the end
of 2018, but has been delayed until 2019. Meanwhile, the two countries decided to halve the capacity of the link to 500 MW due to the slower than expected pace of construction of renewable energy projects in the Balkans.
Kazakhstan is looking to use Iran as a transit hub to boost grain and other exports to Europe and beyond, according to the Iranian Chamber of Commerce.
Kazakhstan and Iran face each other across the Caspian Sea. Goods to be exported to, or via, Iran can depart the Kazakh seaport of Aktau. A member of the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), Kazakhstan has become increasingly interested in trading with Iran, which has an economy that serves 81mn people.
“I recently visited Amir Abad Port [in Iran on the Caspian Sea coast] and Shahid Rajai Port [on Iran’s Persian Gulf coast] and it was agreed that some parts of the ports will be given to us for the building of terminals with Kazakh government investment,” said Kazakhstan’s Ambassador to Tehran Askhat Orazbay.
Gas extracted from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz-2 Caspian Sea field has reached the Turkish-Greek border on the newly-constructed $8.5bn Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP), Azerbaijani media reports said on June 17.
Head of the TANAP consortium Saltuk Duzyol has previously said that the pipeline would be ready for commercial gas deliveries by July 1.
TANAP is to connect to the under-construction Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) which will traverse Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before making landfall in Southern Italy.
Azerbaijani gas reportedly reaches Turkish-Greek border via TANAP pipeline