Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 13-06-28

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Shah Deniz choice of Trans-Adriatic Pipeline 'makes this a special day', deputy minister

[01] Shah Deniz choice of Trans-Adriatic Pipeline 'makes this a special day', deputy minister

The Shah Deniz II consortium - consisting of BP (UK), Statoil (Norway), Total (France) and Socar (Azerbaijan) - settled on TAP, according to press reports on Friday quoting Gordon Birrell, BP's regional President for Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey.

The consortium chose TAP over the Nabucco pipeline - consisting of Austrian, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Turkish and French interests - which would have bypassed Greece.

On Wednesday, Papageorgiou and Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras were the Greek signatories of the Host Government Agreement with TAP, which will pass through Turkey, Greece and Albania to Italy, with a pipeline section crossing the Adriatic Sea.

At the signing on Wednesday, TAP Managing Director Kjetil Tungland thanked the government for its cooperation and noted the support given by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, the Parliament and the ministries involved and said that the agreement provided a firm foundation for carrying out the 1.5-billion-euro investment for the construction of the Greek portion of the pipeline.

In his comments on Friday, Papageorgiou said that "the development shows that when we function methodically and in an organized fashion we can achieve major things for the country."

Also in Parliament, recognition of the Environment Ministry's role in promoting the project for Greece was expressed by MP Odysseas Konstantinopoulos of PASOK, which shares the rule with New Democracy, and parliamentary vice president Ioannis Tragakis.

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