Lafazanis: Gov't fully supports the TAP pipeline

During his visit to Azerbaijan to participate in the first meeting of the advisory council for the Southern Gas Corridor, Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy Minister, Panagiotis Lafazanis,said that the Greek government fully supports the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and is ready to work for its earliest possible construction.

During his trip, Lafazanis met and held talks with the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. Discussions focused on the cooperation between the two countries, as well as the need for further development. Parallel to this, Lafazanis also met with EU Vice President Maros Sefcovic, in charge of Energy Union, with whom he discussed southeast European energy matters, including the TAP project.

The Greek Minister also had a chance to speak with his Bulgarian counterpart (or Energy Minister) Temenuzhka Petkova, to reaffirm Greece's commitment for a fast completion of the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) pipeline. A need to further examine the project’s progress in the near future was also addressed.

Moreover, Lafazanis met with the Energy Minister of Azerbaijan, Natiq Aliyev, and noted the need for compensatory measures accruing from the construction of the TAP pipeline for Greece, which would benefit all concerned (including Greece). The same issue was also raised during the Minister’s meeting with the TAP CEO, Ian Bradshaw.

Lastly, the minister met with BP regional president for Turkey-Azerbaijan-Georgia, Gordon Birrell. Reports in Athens say that Lafazanis presented Birrell with the request of the Greek side for compensatory measures from the TAP pipeline and Birrell reportedly stated that he might look into the Greek proposal further.