TIRANA (Albania), June 11 (SeeNews) – Italian gas infrastructure company Snam said on Monday it signed an agreement with Albanian state-owned gas infrastructure operator Albgaz to create a joint venture for the operation and maintenance of the gas pipelines in Albania.
“The joint venture will be 75% owned by Albgaz and 25% by Snam,” the Italian company said in a statement.
The signing of the joint venture contract in Tirana follows the conclusion of an international tender called by Albgaz to select a qualified partner to support the company, Snam added.
According to Snam, the joint venture would also facilitate potential future technical collaboration for the development of the Albanian gas market.
In July 2017, Snam signed a memorandum of understanding with Albgaz to support the development of a gas infrastructure system that will be managed by Albgaz, which was set up in 2017 for this purpose. The MoU came in relation to the gas market development that will be launched with the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) pipeline crossing Albania, now under construction.
As of end-April, 72.5% of TAP gas pipeline project was completed, including engineering, procurement and construction, 96% of the pipeline route in Albania and Greece was cleared and around 80% of the pipes were laid in the ground. Connecting with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) at Greece's border with Turkey, TAP will stretch across northern Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before reaching Italy's coast where it will connect to the Italian natural gas network.
TAP is part of the Southern Gas Corridor, which also comprises the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) crossing Azerbaijan and Georgia, and TANAP.
The shareholders of TAP are BP, Azerbaijan’s state company Socar and Italy’s Snam with 20% each, Belgium’s Fluxys with 19%, Spain’s Enagas with 16% and Swiss-based Axpo with 5%.