TIRANA (Albania), November 13 (SeeNews) – The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project is nearly 82% completed and construction work is well underway, the consortium said.
“We are well on track and on time to start operations in 2020,” TAP consortium said in a Twitter post on Monday.
Last month, TAP said it launched construction works in Albania for the 105km offshore section across the Adriatic Sea that will link the gas pipeline to Italy’s transmission network.
The pipeline, approximately 878km long, will transport natural gas from the giant Shah Deniz II field in Azerbaijan to Europe. It will connect to the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) at the Turkish-Greek border at Kipoi, cross Greece and Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in southern Italy.
The routing of the pipeline can facilitate gas supply to several countries in Southeast Europe, including Bulgaria, Albania, Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia and others. TAP’s landfall in Italy provides multiple opportunities for further transport of Caspian natural gas to some of the largest European markets such as Germany, France, the UK, Switzerland and Austria.
The shareholders of TAP consortium are BP, Azerbaijan’s state company Socar and Italy’s Snam with 20% each, Belgium’s Fluxys with 19%, Spain’s Enagas with 16% and Swiss-based Axpo with 5%.