February 16 (SeeNews) - Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR will provide engineering services to Albania’s state-owned Albgaz for the design of a gas pipeline in Albania, Baku-based news agency Trend reported on Friday.
SOCAR, via its subsidiary SOCAR Balkan, will offer a front end engineering design (FEED) for the gas pipeline planned to link the southwestern Albanian cities of Fier and Vlora in order to ensure gas supply to Albania as part of the Southern Gas Corridor project, Trend quoted Socar as saying in a statement.
The Southern Gas Corridor is a project for transportation of gas from the Caspian region to the European countries through Georgia and Turkey.
Based on the feasibility study on Albania's gas master plan in January 2017, it was determined that the construction of a gas pipeline between Fier and Vlora is a necessity. The pipeline will connect the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) with a gas supply plant to be built near the city of Fier. The pipeline will be approximately 40 km long, with annual capacity of 1 billion cubic metres, according to the report.
Albania's government said in November it approved a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the government of Azerbaijan for the development of Albania's gas master plan. The MoU sets the ground for assistance from SOCAR in the construction of the necessary infrastructure for the gasification of the country, with gas to be fed through TAP.