BAKU, March 9 (Reuters) - Azerbaijan state energy companySOCAR plans to announce a tender to find a company to conduct afeasibility study on Albania's gas infrastructure plan as partof European efforts to reduce dependence on gas from Russia.
Albania and Azerbaijan signed a preliminary agreement inDecember to cooperate in development of an Albanian gas grid asthe Balkan country leads construction of the European section ofthe project to bring Azeri gas to Europe from the Shah Deniz IIfield in the Caspian Sea.
The so-called southern corridor will bring gas to Turkey andGreece, as well to Italy via Albania and the Adriatic Sea.
"SOCAR will announce this tender in the next three months,"Murad Heydarov, adviser to SOCAR's president, told Reuters.
"We should draft the feasibility study before the end of2015, and if this project is considered effective, we will startAlbania's gasification project in March next year."
Heydarov estimated the project's cost at "several hundredmillion dollars".
Azeri gas could reach southern Europe by the end of thisdecade through the proposed Trans Adriatic Pipeline and theTrans Anatolian Pipeline.
These pipelines would carry billions of cubic metres of gasa year from Shah Deniz II, one of the world's largest gasfields, which is being developed by a BP-led consortium. (Reporting by Nailia Bagirova; Writing by Margarita Antidze;Editing by David Goodman)
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