In a meeting with a high-ranking BP executive on Wednesday, Greece's Environment Minister Tina Birbili asserted that the southern corridor natgas supply from the Caspian Sea to Europe should begin via the ITGI (Interconnection Turkey-Greece-Italy) pipeline, with other pipelines added when additional quantities of natural gas were available.
Birbili and Deputy Environment Minister Yiannis Maniatis supported this position during their meeting with Alasdair Cook, BP Vice President for the Shah Deniz II Development in Azerbaijan.
Currently, consortiums for the ITGI, Nabucco and Trans-Adriatic (TAP) pipelines are all competing for the output of the Shah Deniz gas field. The Greek government's position is that the ITGI has precedence because it is the most mature and advanced project on the southern corridor and the most competitive.
Cook referred to BP's commitment to open the southern corridor and develop the Shah Deniz II field, while thanking the Greek government for its support.
Participating in the consortium for the Shah Deniz field are Socar (ten percent), BP (25.5 percent), Statoil (25.5 percent), Total (ten percent), Lukoil (ten percent), Nico (ten percent) and TPAO (nine percent).
ANA
