Baku, Azerbaijan, June 7
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Shallow water pipelay and offshore backfilling in Albania as part of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project is now complete, Trend reports citing TAP AG consortium.
These activities started in April 2019 when TAP’s first ever offshore pipelines in Albania were successfully pulled ashore on March 30. The pipeline head reached kilometre point 0, where the offshore joins with the onshore section.
TAP’s offshore section, linking the Albanian and the Italian coasts, is 105 km long.
TAP project, worth 4.5 billion euros, is one of the priority energy projects for the European Union (EU). The project envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz Stage 2 to the EU countries.
Connecting with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) at the Greek-Turkish border, TAP will cross Northern Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before coming ashore in Southern Italy to connect to the Italian natural gas network.
The project is currently in its construction phase, which started in 2016.
Once built, TAP will offer a direct and cost-effective transportation route opening up the vital Southern Gas Corridor, a 3,500-kilometer long gas value chain stretching from the Caspian Sea to Europe.
TAP shareholders include BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Snam S.p.A. (20 percent), Fluxys (19 percent), Enagás (16 percent) and Axpo (5 percent).
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn