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Completion was targeted for early 2020, but Duzyol was cited as saying that the TAP consortium faced “some technical difficulties as well as other non-technical issues that affected their success”. In May, TAP executives were only talking about launching operations at some point in 2020.
In October last year, Italy’s populist 5-Star Movement backed off from its electoral pledge to stop the construction of TAP. The U-turn sparked a row over broken environmental promises in Italy, but no doubt came as a huge relief to Azerbaijan which would face a mighty headache if the $28bn development of Shah Deniz II was met by the blocking of the gas route to EU markets. 5-Star said it was forced to retreat from scrapping Italy’s commitment to TAP because the country would face contractual penalties of €20bn if it withdrew approval of the infrastructure at this late stage.
Former party sympathisers set fire to the 5-Star flag in the southern Italian town of Melendugno—the planned terminus of TAP’s final leg—in a protest against the decision. 5-Star’s U-turn came after lobbying from figures including former UK prime minister Tony Blair, who has worked as a consultant on TAP since 2014.
Duzyol was also reported as saying TANAP shareholders expected to get $1.45bn in annual income over 15 years.
TANAP’s shareholders are Socar (51%), Turkish company Botas (30%), BP (12%) and Socar Turkey (7%).
9.1.2 Transport sector news
A partnership agreement has been signed for the route linking Constanta port in Romania with the Port of Batumi in Georgia, Georgian Railways announced. Direct access to the EU market through Georgia is an advantage of this route, Georgian Railway stressed. The transit time from China to the European market will be reduced to 15 days.
A trilateral agreement was signed between Georgian Railway's subsidiary GR Logistics and Terminals, the Azeri state-controlled shipping company Azerbaijani Caspian Sea Shipping and the Romanian private railway operator Grampet.
A special memorandum of understanding between GR Logistics and Terminals and Grampet aims to establish the regular Constanta-Batumi route. According to the memorandum, a new regular container ship will connect the port of Batumi with the port of Constanta in Romania as soon as possible. Simplified shipping procedure will help increase the freight volume in the corridor. Grampet, controlled by Romanian businessman Gruia Stoica, is one of the leading companies in the field of rail freight in Europe. It transports almost 22 million tonnes of cargo annually.
The move serves Grampet’s target of establishing freight flow along the route from China to Western Europe, Stoica s aid.
The project is a new stage by which the member companies of the
43 GEORGIA Country Report February 2020 www.intellinews.com
