The Italian far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini, will meet Tony Blair to discuss plans to extend a gas pipeline that will run from Azerbaijan to Puglia in southern Italy.
Blair has worked as a consultant on the Trans Adriatic Pipeline since 2014, which is the pet project of Azerbaijan’s strongman president, Ilham Aliyev. It is estimated that the Shah Deniz gas field in Azerbaijan has gas reserves of 1.2tn cubic metres and the EU is expecting to receive 1.2m cubic metres per day from the pipeline.
Italian environmentalists claim Puglia, which has two Unesco world heritage sites, will suffer as a result of the pipeline. There are fears that the pipeline will contaminate freshwater supplies.
Interest in the pipeline has been on the rise as opposition grows in Europe to the plans for the larger Russian-backed alternative gas pipeline, Nord Stream 2, which would take gas from Russia to Germany, possibly bypassing Russia’s regional rival Ukraine.
Many countries, including Poland, the US and UK, are fiercely opposed to Nord Stream 2, arguing it will strengthen Russia’s influence in Europe, weaken Ukraine’s finances and entrench the power of Russian gas in the European energy mix.
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