Albania asks for gas passing through Turkey

Albanian Prime Minister Sali Berisha asked for gas over the Shah Deniz pipeline that passes through Turkey, Turkish Energy Minister Hilmi Guler said on the sidelines of a summit in Croatia.
Azerbaijan's gas from its Shah Deniz deposit is being transported to Turkey by Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline. The initial capacity of the pipeline is 8.8 bn cm of gas per year, and after 2012 its capacity could be expanded to 20 bn cm per year.

Turkey was an integral party of the European Union's energy security, Guler also said.
"In 2007 world's oil demand increased by 1 mm bpd, and the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline (BTC) can meet the increase on its own. This is a solid proof for Turkey's contribution to the world energy security," he said.

The BTC covers 1,768 km and carries Azeri oil through Georgia to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan and from there to world markets.
Guler added that efforts were underway on a pipeline project to carry Arab gas to Europe and said the Nabucco project's agreement would be signed between the governments soon. The Nabucco project is a planned 3,300 km natural gas pipeline that will carry gas from Turkey to Austria, via Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary. However, rising costs and uncertainties over supply sources are seen as the most important challenges in the project.