The trans-Adriatic gas corridor, the one that will connect Puglia to Albania and Greece, arriving by other routes as far as Azerbaijan, is already starting to be trafficked. The Hera Group has signed a contract for the purchase of natural gas from the field under development at Shah Deniz, on the Caspian Sea, in Azeri territory.
Deniz, has a duration of 25 years and foresees the allocation, in this first phase, of an annual volume of 300 million cubic metres. The first gas supplies are expected no earlier than 2019.
The date coincides with the completion of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the gas pipeline which within six years will connect the coasts of Puglia, through the Adriatic, Albania and Greece to the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), the gas pipeline which runs along Turkey , in turn connected to the South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion (SCPX), which reaches up to Shah Deniz.
The TAP represents the terminal appendage of the so-called "Southern Corridor", intended to open up to Europe a new source of natural gas supply, which will be able to balance the flows currently coming from Russia, North Africa and the North Sea.
Hera is the only local Italian utility to participate in the purchase of Azeri gas through TAP, but is not involved in the construction of the pipeline.
