ITALY

Georgia, together with 12 NATO member countries and partners, will take part in the international naval exercise “Sea Shield 24”, which will be held in Romania from April 8 to 21, the press service of the Romanian Ministry of Defense reported.

According to the information, in addition to Georgia and Romania, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Moldova, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the USA, Turkey and France will take part in the exercises.

The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) has transported around 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Italy in 2023, Trend reports via the TAP AG consortium.

“From 2026 we will be able to supply 1.2 billion cubic meters more per year,” reads a message from the consortium.

The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) consortium will test its asset materials for hydrogen supplies this month, TAP AG told Trend.

Two minehunters from Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group Two (SNMCMG2) worked closely with the Italian Navy and local authorities to monitor the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) on the seabed of the Adriatic Sea, Trend reports.

The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) consortium is consulting with Greek gas transmission operators on a technical agreement that covers the possibility of delivering gas to eurozone buyers from the new floating liquefied natural gas terminal (FSRU) in Alexandroupolis to their markets via TAP.

A source knowledgeable in this matter exclusively told Trend about this.

In January-June 2023, the export of customs-declared volumes of natural gas from Azerbaijan amounted to 10,956,188.04 thousand cubic meters, which is 3.6% less than a year earlier, despite a tripling of the supply volume for Bulgaria, announced the State Customs Committee of the country (SCC).

Revenues from the export of declared gas from Azerbaijan amounted to 8,029,188.03 thousand US dollars (7.9% growth).

Italy purchased natural gas worth 842 722 785 euros from Azerbaijan via the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) in January 2023, Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, told Trend.

Azerbaijan’s natural gas exports to Italy stood at 732 675 000 cubic meters last year, according to Eurostat.

The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) will allocate additional 1.2 billion cubic meters of gas from 2026, said Luca Schieppati, TAP Managing Director at the European Gas Conference, Trend reports.

“TAP recently triggered the first level of capacity expansion. The additional 1.2 bcm to be allocated from 2026 will be the initial phase of the process until capacity is reached to 20 bcm per year,” he said.

The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) has saved Italy from deindustrialization, Matteo Villa, Head of the Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) DataLab, said, Trend reports.

"For Italy, 2022 was an important year in terms of diversification. We have the TAP, which, in 2021, saved us all. We have worked as much as possible to keep close to suppliers such as Algeria, and Azerbaijan as well as diversifying," he said.

Representatives of ICGB AD (Bulgaria), Bulgartransgaz EAD (Bulgaria), DESFA S.A. (Greece), Gastrade S.A. (Greece), FGSZ LTD (Hungary) and SNTGN TRANSGAZ S.A. (Romania) signed the renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding on the implementation of the Vertical Gas Corridor. The meeting took place in Athens, Greece.