BP, the main developer of the Shah Deniz gas field in the Caspian Sea, has confirmed that a gas pipeline to Europe will go through Greece and then under the sea into Italy.
Regional BP president Gordon Birell said at an official ceremony in Baku, Azerbaijan's capital, on Friday that the project has been awarded to the Greece-Albania-Italy Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, or TAP. The other option, the Nabucco West venture, would have run across Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria.
TAP is comprised of Norway's Statoil, Axpo of Switzerland and the German firm EON. The pipeline will run nearly 800 kilometres (500 miles) across northern Greece and into southern Albania before travelling under sea to Italy.
BP holds 25.5 per cent of the Shah Deniz project, while Statoil holds another 25.5 per cent.
