TRANS-ADRIATIC PIPELINE PROJECT AND ITS POTENTIAL EFFECTS ON ALBANIA

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explain the exploration and the production of natural gas in Albania, which has an important impact on the country's economy. The development of the natural gas sector in Albania is one of the priorities set out inthe National Strategy of Energy. The research on this paper is based on regulatory authority of the energy sector and on our actual data and survey made on Albanian citizens according to socio-economic judgments about the Trans-Adriatic pipeline project (TAP).In the first part of this paper, it will be explained that the development of natural gas production process in Albania. The natural gas production in Albania started in 1968 at Divjaka gas field with an annual domestic production of 70 million Nm3.Up to 1990 this resource was used to furnish different industries as the fertilizer industry, the oil industry, electricity industry and residential sector. Actually it serves only for the oil industry.As Albania is the only country in Europe which is not connected to the international gas network, in the second part of this paper, It will be explained how Albania iscreating a network to international gas supply. Emphasis will be on the TAP projectand the Albanian citizens' perceptions on socio-economic reasoning about this project. TAP is an important project because it will link Albania with other Balkan,European and Asian countries and our analyses will be on Albanian people's perceptions about this project. Collected data analyzed by SPSS package programme.