* TAP beat Nabucco on 7 of 8 criteria
* The reason was not high gas prices in Italy, Greece
* Government continues to support South Stream
* GALSI pipeline important for Italy (Recasts lead, adds junior minister comments, background)
By Alberto Sisto
ROME, July 1 (Reuters) - The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP)project outscored rival Nabucco West on virtually all fronts towin the race to carry Azeri gas into Europe, a junior ministerat Italy's Industry ministry told Reuters.
Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR and its partners inthe Shah Deniz II gas field, including BP and Statoil, said on Friday they had selected TAP.
The project, linking a Turkish pipeline to southern Italyvia Greece and Albania, plans to deliver 10 billion cubic metres(bcm) of Azeri gas to Europe each year beginning in 2019.
BP said there was a "substantial" commercial differencebetween the two competing pipeline projects, including the costof shipping the Azeri gas and gas prices in the respectivemarkets.
The head of Austria's OMV, part of the rivalNabucco project, said last week the TAP project had been chosenbecause of high gas prices in Italy and Greece.
"It was not for high gas prices in Italy and Greece,"Claudio De Vincenti said in an interview.
TAP beat Nabucco on seven out of eight evaluation criteria,De Vincenti said, naming them as market opportunities, timing,scalability, management operability, funding available, projectquality and transparency.
"It's a victory for Europe. There are no losers and we don'tfeel like winners," De Vincenti said.
TAP shareholders are Statoil, Swiss company AXPO and Germany's E.ON Ruhrgas.
HUB PLANS
Rome, which claims TAP will help diversify energy supplies,plans to turn Italy into a gas hub for Europe and is supportinggas transport group Snam in efforts to integrateEurope's web of gas transmission networks.
De Vincenti said the government continued to support theSouth Stream gas pipeline project led by Italian major Eni and Russia's Gazprom.
The $39 billion South Stream link, which is expected to havea full capacity of 63 bcm, will stretch more than 2,000kilometres through the Black Sea and Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungaryand Slovenia to northeast Italy.
Some observers have expressed skepticism about the viabilityof a glut of large gas infrastructure projects at a time whenovercapacity on Europe's natural gas markets is depressingprices and biting into profits.
Asked if Eni was dragging its feet on South Stream, DeVincenti said "no, I do not have this impression".
The junior minister also said the GALSI pipeline project,which will carry 8 bcm of Algerian gas into Italy throughSardinia, was also important for the country.
He said GALSI had put back the date for a final investmentdecision to the first few months of 2014. (Additional reporting and writing by Stephen Jewkes; editing byFrancesca Landini and Jeff Coelho)
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