Greece threatens TAP, wants more profits

The Greek Foreign Minister, Panayottis Lafazanis, declared that the Greek government supports the construction of the TAP network, but Greece will want to change the agreement in three points.

First of all, the Greek government needs to have shares in the project. Secondly, the negotiated gas prices for consumers should be reduced. Thirdly, it is about the fees that Greece wants for having the project on its territory.

These moves from Athens have raised concerns among the TAP shareholders, which goes through Albania. The Azerbaijani state-owned company, one of the main shareholders in this project, declared that they are ready to sell shares to the Greek government, but they have refused to other requests, that of reducing the gas prices and the passage fees to the Greek government.

In an interview for the Azerbaijani media, the Deputy President of this company, Elshad Nasirov, declared that a dropped price falls against the international practices. As for the fees that the Greek government wants for the passage of the pipeline on their territory, Nasirov declared that Greece should discuss this issue with the EU.

Some media say that the new course of Athens might damage the energy security in Europe, since the TAP has a strong support from the EU, for reducing its dependence from the Russian gas.

Some analysts say that Greece is using the project for having a better position in the negotiations for the debt.

Ministry of Energy: The project is not in danger

Experts at the Albanian Ministry of Energy say that the clashes between the Greek government and TAP will not put in risk its construction.

“The project is in an advanced phase in Greece. We must keep in mind that the shareholders of this project are the biggest companies in the world, such as Socar, Total, BP and Fluxys. I don’t think that the project is at risk, since Greece will have a maximal profit”, says Dritan Spahiu, Director of Fuels at the Ministry of Energy and Industry.

According to Spahiu, if the Greek government will renegotiate the agreement with the TAP shareholders for additional profits, this would be good news for Albania too.

“The agreement of the Albanian government with TAP is such that if Greece will have more profits than in normal conditions, the Albanian government should be compensate with the same value. If the agreement with Greece will change, it will automatically change for Albania”, he said.

The project enjoys a full support by the EU and is now in an advanced phase. Its construction will be complete by 2020.

Top Channel