TAP 99% Complete Onshore
Welding work on the onshore section of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) through southern Europe is now 99% complete, the project’s operating consortium said on Twitter on July 31.
TAP forms the third and final segment of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) network that aims to pump Azeri gas to Europe starting next year. The 878-km pipeline runs through Greece and Albania before crossing the Adriatic Sea and making landfall in Italy. It did not say where the last 1% was or whether it was distributed across the entire length; but the company has met with stiff opposition in Italy. Rome has backed it for economic reasons but the major of the financially struggling region in the south where it lands has raised obstacles.
While onshore work is nearing completion, construction of TAP's 105-km offshore stretch only began in October 2018, and it was not until April this year that Italy’s Saipem lowered the pipe onto the seabed off the coast of Albania.
Under its first stage, TAP will pump up to 10bn m3/year of gas, which it will receive from the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline at the Greek-Turkish border. TAP’s operating consortium includes Snam, BP, Azerbaijan’s Socar, Belgium’s Fluxys, Spain’s Enagas and Swiss-based Axpo. The group launched a market test last month for the pipeline’s potential expansion to 20bn m3/yr.