Switzerland Helps Albania Build Gas Market

Beatrice Maser, director at the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs told BIRN that Switzerland was offering Albania a grant to help it "reap the full benefits of the TAP", the Trans Adriatic Pipeline.

"The idea of the Project Agreement for Capacity Building for Large Gas Infrastructure Developments in Albania is to create the necessary institutional conditions for a gas market," Maser said.

During the signing ceremony, Albanian Minister Energy Damian Gjiknuri and Finance Minister Shkelqim Cani thanked the Swiss for their support.

The Trans Adriatic Pipeline will link existing gas pipelines in Turkey with the Italian network through 870 km of new pipelines in Greece, Albania and under the Adriatic Sea.

Construction in Greece and Albania has started with a completion date of 2019. Albania hopes it will be able to purchase some of the gas passing through its territory and has already signed a memorandum of understanding with the Azerbaijan company SOCAR for a preliminary feasibility study.

"This project hopes to help Albania to diversify its energy sources away from the hydropower," Maser explained.

Albania currently secures all its electricity from hydropower plants, which are cheap and environmentally clean but are also affected by fluctuations in rainfall.

Albania has no concrete plans as yet on how to use the expected gas. It has only one small thermal power plant and the government has not announced plans to build new power plants.