March 22 (SeeNews) - Montenegro's government is considering seeking a concessionaire for the Ionian-Adriatic Pipeline (IAP) on its territory, which is estimated to cost about 207 million euro ($229 million), local media reported.
"The latest projection of the Western Balkans Investment Framework shows that the pipeline will be 94 km long, and the construction costs will be around 207 million euro. This is big money, so we are considering offering a concession for the gas project," daily Pobjeda quoted sources from the capital investments ministry as saying on Monday.
The diameter and pressure of the gas pipeline through Montenegro have not been defined yet, the sources from the ministry said.
The IAP is planned to carry natural gas from Albania's Fier via Montenegro and Bosnia to Split in Croatia. The 520 km pipeline would be bi-directional and its annual capacity would be 5 billion cubic metres.
In Fier, IAP would connect to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) built to transport natural gas from the Shah Deniz II field in Azerbaijan to Europe. The first deliveries of Azeri gas to Italy via TAP were carried out last year.
($ = 0.9041 euro)