The Southern Gas Corridor project, of which TAP is a part, is expected to cost around $45 billion.

"The talks are under way. The issues of TAP financing will be completely solved on April 28," Aliyev told reporters, declining to say why that exact date was chosen.

TAP's shareholders are BP, Azeri state company SOCAR, Snam, Fluxys, Enagas and Axpo.

TAP is a part of the project that is designed to transport 16 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz II field in the Caspian Sea, one of the world's largest gas fields, by the end of the decade.

The 870 kilometre (545 mile) pipeline will connect with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) near the Turkish-Greek border at Kipoi, cross Greece and Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before reaching southern Italy.

Last week, Aliyev said that construction on the TAP would begin in March.

Russia, which supplies a third of Europe's gas, has long sought to supply gas to southern Europe via the Black Sea in order to bypass Ukraine, a main route for the Russian gas to the European Union, as relations between Moscow and Kiev have soured.

Moscow also faces tougher regulations in the EU, which bars gas producers from owning infrastructure. It has already scrapped the South Stream pipeline project due to EU resistance and its TurkStream gas pipeline due to political tension with Ankara.

However, Europe has endorsed the gas from Azerbaijan. European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic, who was in the Azeri capital Baku, said that the project would be completed on time.

 

(Reuters)