The $45bn complex pipeline project running from Azerbaijan to Italy and consisting of four mega projects – Shah Deniz 2, South Caucasus Pipeline expansion (SCPX), Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (Tanap), and the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) – would be delivered and will come in under budget, eventually delivering 16-32bn m³/yr.

“This important contract is a key milestone for the Nord Stream 2 project: It will provide the logistical back-bone for the construction phase and is fully in line with our project schedule,” said Nord Stream 2 chief project officer Henning Kothe. “We are also pleased that Wasco will be co-operating with the ports, which successfully participated already in implementation of the existing Nord Stream.”

“There are no easy buttons to push. It’s not simply about the oil price, the Paris Agreement or the still incomplete single market. It’s about the interdependencies and how these factors amplify each other. At the end of the day, economic as well as social and ecological interests must be in balance with supply security in Europe.”

“America’s growth in natural gas production means that through LNG exports we can give our allies stability and security in the global natural gas market. America’s shale revolution is growing our economy, spurring environmental improvements and strengthening our own energy security. U.S. LNG will give our allies an opportunity to achieve those some goals.”

Bulgaria’s prime minister Boyko Borisov proposed the gas hub, to be built near the city of Varna, days after Russia scrapped the Gazprom-led South Stream pipeline project over objections from the EC, suggesting a different idea of what a hub is from the conventional, virtual trading point such as the Dutch title transfer facility.

Gazprom's sales volume to its core ‘Europe and other’ markets in 1Q grew by 49% to 58.1bn m³, an increase of 19bn m³ on 39.1bn m³ in January-March 2015. Sales to former Soviet countries declined by 15.5% (by 2bn m³) to 10.9bn m³, while those in Russia declined more modestly to 75.4bn m³, just 6% or 4.9bn m³ less than in 1Q 2015.

Ramezani told the Panel of Prospect of Gas Industry in Next Half a Century that the deal is expect to prepare the condition for export and shipment of gas to West Europe.

Between January-July, flows totaled 66.52 Bcm, 16% higher than the cumulative total for the same period last year and 13% up on the previous record high for the January-July period of 58.73 Bcm from 2014.

The so-called TAP, which formally started construction in May, will run for 878 kilometers (550 miles) from Greece's border with Turkey, through Albania and to southern Italy, including a 105-kilometer (65-mile) stretch under the Adriatic Sea. First deliveries to Europe are expected in 2020.

Gazprom will send some of the gas from its controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline through Slovakia, the Russian state-controlled company said, in a move that may soften Slovak opposition to the project.