PARIS, France: Oil groups BP and Total and two other energy firms have taken stakes in a consortium which will build a trans-Adriatic gas pipeline seen as key to help Europe reduce its dependence on Russia.
The so-called Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) consortium announced Tuesday that BP of Britain, Total of France, Socar of Azerbaijan and Belgian gas network company Fluxys had each taken shares in the group.
The pipeline will run from Greece, through Albania and the Adriatic Sea to come ashore in southern Italy, and construction is due to start in 2015.
It will transport natural gas coming from the giant Azeri Shah Deniz gas field in the Caspian Sea, which is also being developed by BP, Total, Socar as well as Norway's Statoil.
The gas will initially exit Azerbaijan through another soon-to-be-built pipeline running through Turkey to Greece, where it will connect to TAP.
BP and Socar both took a 20-percent stake in the TAP project, and Total 10 percent, the consortium said. Fluxys, meanwhile, has 16 percent.
The consortium developing the Azeri field aims to extract 16 billion cubic metres (560 billion cubic feet) of gas per year from under the Caspian Sea.
Six billion cubic metres will go to Turkey from 2018 and the rest will go to Europe from 2019, BP said last month.
The whole project will help reduce Europe's dependence on gas from Russia - a stated EU target.
The EU currently imports 60 percent of its gas needs, with a quarter of gas consumed supplied by Russia. (AFP)
