February 23 (SeeNews) - Montenegro's economy minister Dragica Sekulic said the country has received a 2.5 million euro ($2.6 million) grant for the preparation of project documentation of the Ionian Adriatic Pipeline (IAP) from the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF).
The implementation of the project will start in the second quarter of 2017, Sekulic said during the IAP project management meeting in Baku, in Azerbaijan, as quoted in a statement by the Montenegrin government on Wednesday.
The grant will finance the preparation of the project documentation of the pipeline on the territories of Montenegro and Albania and was approved as a result of the joint work of both governments, Sekulic said during the meeting, attended by representatives of ministries and gas distribution operators from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Albania.
IAP is a proposed natural gas pipeline in Southeastern Europe that will stretch from Albania through Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, to Split in Croatia. It will be connected with the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), under construction by a consortium that includes State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR). TAP will transport natural gas from the Shah Deniz II field in Azerbaijan to Europe.
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Montenegro signed in August 2016 a Memorandum of Understanding with SOCAR on the IAP project.
($ = 0.9473 euro)