The Italian and Spanish LNG importers and natural gas pipeline operators, SNAM and Enagás, have signed an accord on establishing a direct offshore gas pipeline connecting Spain with Italy as a way overcoming the European Union energy crisis worsened by the Ukraine conflict.
Italian natural gas network company and LNG importer SNAM reported a more than 8 percent increase in net profits as more natural gas was used in Italy and it benefited from foreign investments in the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline bringing gas from Azerbaijan and its stake in the Abu Dhabi’s pipelines system in the United Arab Emirates.
Jan 1 (LNGJ) - Azerbaijan, the former republic of the Soviet Union, has started commercial natural gas supplies to southern Europe via the Trans- Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) in competition to LNG and Russian pipeline gas from Gazprom. The TAP pipeline is 3,500 kilometres in length and is part of the $40-billion Southern Gas Corridor bringing natural gas to Europe from the Shah Deniz II field in the Caspian Sea, operated by UK oil and gas major BP.
Azerbaijan plans to supply the markets of the European Union with 10 billion cubic metres per annum of pipeline gas, including 8 Bcm to Italy and a combined 2 Bcm to Greece and Bulgaria. It has already supplied gas to Turkey. The TAP stakeholders include BP and the Azeri energy company Socar, as well as the gas grid operators of Italy, Spain and Belgium.