Trans Adriatic Pipeline is 50% complete

The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) is now more than 50% complete, nearly 16 months after construction began. TAP’s contractors have cleared some 70% of the project route in Greece and Albania (539 km out of 765 km). In addition, over 45% of welded steel pipes are already in the ground (backfilled). Approximately 95% of the total 55,000 pipes to be used for the construction of the pipeline have been received in Greece, Albania and Italy, with the last shipment of offshore line pipes offloaded in Brindisi, Italy, in early September.

According to TAP Managing Director Luca Schieppati, TAP remains ‘on time and on budget’ and is ‘on track to deliver the first Shah Deniz II gas in 2020, bringing a much-needed new source of energy into the European energy network’.

TAP will transport natural gas from the giant Shah Deniz II field in Azerbaijan to Europe, connecting with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) at the Turkish-Greek border at Kipoi, crossing Greece and Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Southern Italy.

The pipeline’s routing can facilitate gas supply to several south-eastern European countries, including Bulgaria, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and others. Its landfall in Italy also 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.

First gas sales to Georgia and Turkey are targeted for late 2018, with first deliveries to Europe following in 2020.

TAP’s shareholders comprise BP (20%), Socar (20%), Snam (20%), Fluxys (19%), Enagás (16%) and Axpo (5%).

Pic courtesy of Trans Adriatic Pipeline