Page 36 - GEORptFeb19

9.0 Industry & Sectors 9.1 Sector news
9.1.1 Oil & gas sector news
The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project to provide the final leg of a 3,500-km-long set of interconnected pipelines that will deliver Azerbaijani gas to Italy at the end of an Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey-Greece-Albania-Adriatic Sea route has announced its financial close.
It has secured €3.9bn from public and private lenders, its managing director, Luca Shieppati said in a January 11 statement.
The sum is the largest amount of finance agreed for a European infrastructure project last year. The biggest creditor is the European Investment Bank (EIB), which provided a €700mn loan, while the second biggest is the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) with a loan of €500mn provided on its own account and €500mn syndicated to a group of 16 commercial banks.
TAP is a priority project of the European Union (EU) and the Energy Community, an international organisation which brings together the EU and its neighbours to create an integrated pan-European energy market.
The 878-kilometre pipeline will start at the Greek/Turkish border, cross Albania and, after passing under the Adriatic Sea, terminate in southern Italy. It constitutes the final segment of the Southern Gas Corridor (SCG), a supply route to transport gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe.
With an initial annual capacity of 10bn cubic metres—equivalent to the energy consumption of approximately seven million households in Europe—the pipeline will make a significant contribution to the diversification of Europe’s energy supply, the EBRD said in a press release. The first delivery of gas is expected in 2020.
It will also make energy supply for consumers more reliable and achieve significant CO2 reductions by offering an alternative to more polluting energy sources, supporting the transition to low-carbon economies in line with the EBRD’s new energy sector strategy.
Nandita Parshad, EBRD managing director for sustainable infrastructure, said: “The Trans Adriatic Pipeline will set the foundation for an integrated gas market across southeastern Europe and enhance the region’s strategic status as an energy hub. We believe that gas remains an important transition fuel in this region that can help displace coal and facilitate penetration of renewables.”
With exit points along the route, TAP has the potential to support new gas infrastructures, integrating markets across Southeastern Europe and enhancing the region’s strategic status as an energy gateway, the EBRD said.
9.1.2 Automotive sector news
Leading Chinese carmaker Guangzhou Automobile Group will open an office in Georgia by the end of 2019, the Georgian government announced after Prime Minister of Georgia Mamuka Bakhtadze met Guangzhou Automobile Group chairman Zeng Qinghong on January 23.
36 GEORGIA Country Report February 2019 www.intellinews.com