TIRANA (Albania), February 7 (SeeNews) – The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) consortium said it has lowered into the ground over 65% of pipes on the route of the project in Albania and Greece.
Over 500 km out of 765 km of pipes had already been laid and the trench had been back-filled, the consortium said in a Twitter post late on Tuesday.
TAP will stretch from Greece's border with Turkey, via Albania and the Adriatic Sea, to reach Italy's coast. It is part of the Southern Gas Corridor which also comprises the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP), which crosses Azerbaijan and Georgia, and the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP).
The total investment of the consortium in Albania will stand at 400 million euro ($472 million) in each of 2017 and 2018, Albanian media quoted former TAP Albania country manager, Shkelqim Bozgo, as saying last year.
The consortium plans to start full-scale operation of the pipeline in 2020.
TAP shareholders are BP, Azerbaijan’s state company Socar and Italy’s Snam with 20% each, Belgium’s Fluxys with 19%, Spain’s Enagas with 16% and Swiss-based Axpo with 5%.
($ = 0.80791 euro)