Italy To Update Azeris on TAP

Italy is to present a report on the Trans Adriatic gas pipeline (TAP) construction project at an official bilateral meeting in two weeks' time.

Claudio De Vincenti, the Italian cabinet's state secretary, will provide the update at the Azerbaijani-Italian intergovernmental legal commission on economic cooperation in Rome on June 13, Azerbaijan's energy ministry has said.

Italian PM Matteo Renzi (left) with cabinet state secretary Claudio De Vincenti (Photo credit: Italian government)

Azerbaijan energy minister Natig Aliyev and the Italian ambassador Giampaolo Cutillo discussed preparations on May 31 for the Rome meeting. The previous session of the Azerbaijani-Italian Commission on Economic Cooperation took place in Baku on December 16, 2013.

According to Italy's national statistics institute (Istat), trade in 2015 between the two countries totalled €2,842.1mn. Most of the trade was in energy. Azerbaijan is the second largest oil exporter to Italy, supplying 20% of Italian crude oil imports.

Ilham Shaban