The Trans Adriatic Pipeline AG (TAP) said on Wednesday it will start with the
second phase of the market test for the project on March 17 as part of the
procedure envisaged by the EU Gas Directive for granting it an exemption from
certain provisions related to third party access, regulated tariffs and
unbundling.
Before granting the exemption, the relevant authorities
decided upon rules and mechanisms for management and allocation of capacity.
These rules require a market test to be implemented, TAP said in a
statement.
In April 2012, the authorities issued the market test
guidelines according to which TAP AG’s first market test has to be conducted in
two phases: non-binding Expression of Interest (EoI) Phase and a subsequent
binding Booking Phase.
The EoI phase took place from June 15, 2012 until
August 15, 2012 on the basis of the expression of interest phase notice, issued
by TAP AG and approved by the authorities in May/June 2012.
The EoI Phase
neither bound participants to book the capacity for which they had expressed
their interest, nor bound TAP AG to offer it.
On March 17, TAP will start
the booking phase by sending the booking phase notice to all registered
participants.
TAP will transport natural gas from the giant Shah Deniz II
field in Azerbaijan, connecting with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) near
the Turkish-Greek border at Kipoi, cross Greece and Albania and the Adriatic
Sea, before coming ashore in Southern Italy.
Designed to expand its
capacity from 10 to 20 billion cubic metres per year, TAP will open up the
so-called Southern Gas Corridor. It will act as the link to Azerbaijan and other
gas producers in the Caspian Sea and wider region, thereby enhancing Europe's
energy security, by providing a new source of gas.
The current
shareholders in TAP AG are BP (20%), SOCAR (20%), Statoil (20%), Fluxys (16%),
Total (10%), E.ON (9.0%) and Axpo (5.0%).