Page 9 - FSUOGM Week 18 2022

FSUOGM PIPELINES & TRANSPORT FSUOGM

Aliyev: TAP pipeline to reach full

capacity in 2022, could double later

ILHAM Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, but he did state that Draghi was not the only
said on April 29 that the Trans Adriatic Pipeline European leader that had asked Azerbaijan to
(TAP) was on track to reach full capacity this supply additional gas to replace Russian imports.
year and would deliver 10bn cubic metres of In light of all these requests from Europe, he
natural gas to Italy. added, Azerbaijan will have to consider its own
Speaking at the “South Caucasus: Develop- gas development strategy carefully. It will also
ment and Co-operation” conference in Baku, have to work to co-ordinate upstream and mid-
Aliyev noted that the TAP network had pumped stream operations, he remarked.
8.2 bcm of gas to Italy in 2021. Volumes are set to “Larger export volumes are required today.
rise to full design capacity this year, and the TAP However, one needs to take a look at the gas
system will deliver gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah sources in Azerbaijan. They will involve opti-
Deniz field to buyers in Turkey, Bulgaria, Italy mising gas losses, introducing renewable energy
and Greece, he stated. sources [to free up gas production for export]
He went on to say that TAP had no imme- and commissioning new deposits,” he said. “For
diate plans to increase throughput, as it did not instance, the Absheron deposit will produce 1.5
have any contracts in place that provided for bcm of gas per year. We expect gas extraction to
boosting delivery volumes. But if shareholders start at other deposits as well. At the same time,
in the pipeline consortium reach agreement on as we consider increasing gas exports, we also
the matter, he remarked, they can give the sys- need to take the potential of gas pipelines into
tem the capacity to handle more gas. This would consideration.”
take some time to accomplish, he cautioned. TAP is the westernmost component of the
“The capacity of the TAP gas pipeline may Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), a network of
be increased to 20 bcm [per year] of gas by three pipelines built to handle production
installing additional compressor stations,” he from the Shah Deniz Phase II project. It has a
explained in a speech that was broadcast live throughput capacity of 10 bcm per year and runs
on social media. “I do not want to go much from western Turkey to southern Italy. ™
into technical details now, but it will require the
shareholders of the TAP pipeline to reach a joint
opinion and to adopt a relevant investment deci-
sion. However, one ought to understand that
this issue cannot be resolved within a month.”
Aliyev said he had already discussed the
possibility of increasing the amount of Azerbai-
jani gas delivered to the Italian market via the
TAP network with Italy’s Prime Minister Mario
Draghi and Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio. He
did not reveal the details of those conversations, The TAP network delivered 8.2 bcm of gas to Italy in 2021 (Image: TAP)

INVESTMENT
Bank reportedly bars Litasco

from trading oil derivatives

GENEVA-BASED Litasco, the trading arm of Argus Media on April 29 that at least one bank
Russia’s largest privately owned crude producer had shut Litasco out of the market by declining
Lukoil, has reportedly lost much of its access to to provide clearing services for the Lukoil sub-
global oil derivatives markets. sidiary’s derivatives trades.
Sources knowledgeable about the matter told Argus did not name the bank in question.

Week 18 05•May•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P9