Once operational, TAP will be the westernmost section of the Southern Gas Corridor, a 3,500km long gas pipeline that will connect Shah Deniz stage II to gas markets in Europe.
TAP, which will be 882km long with an initial 10 billion Sm3 per annum capacity, will link with the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) at the Greece-Turkey border.
The pipeline will cross northern Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before coming onshore in southern Italy, where it will connect to the Snam-operated Italian natural gas network.
Statoil marketing, midstream and processing executive vice president Jens Økland said: "We are pleased to announce this agreement with Snam which will realise value from our stake in TAP, of which we have been a part-owner since 2008.
"This divestment increases our financial flexibility and is in line with our strategy of portfolio optimisation and capital prioritization."
The deal is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
In May this year, the company also divested 10% stake in Shah Deniz Production Sharing Agreement and South Caucasus Pipeline Company (SCPC) to BP and SOCAR.
In October, Statoil also sold each 15.5% interest in Shah Deniz and SCPC to Petronas, while 12.4% share in the Azerbaijan Gas Supply Company.
In 2012, Snam and Fluxys acquired E.ON’s 15.09% stake in UK pipeline Interconnector for €127m.
Interconnector is a subsea pipeline between the Bacton in UK and Zeebrugge in Belgium, providing a bi-directional transport capability to facilitate energy trading between the UK and the continental gas trading places.
