TAP Gears Up for Italian Surveying

The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) consortium has said that it will begin the work to examine the suitability of the pipeline's route through Italy. The examination will be conducted through the surveying of TAP's planned route.

Included in the surveying will be a resistivity analysis around the landfall area, the consortium says. During this analysis, the land through which the pipeline is due to be constructed will be assessed for any hollow areas beneath the surface of the soil to ensure the safety of the pipeline construction. The assessment will be carried out by the TAP consortium in conjunction with engineering sub-contractor D'Appolonia.

"Our engineers would like to investigate in detail the proposed pipeline route to ensure that the surface is suitable for construction," Paul Pasteris, TAP's Country Manager for Italy, said in a statement. "We will be collecting additional information to support the routing in this area. This will further establish that that the proposed corridor has been carefully analysed and will not have any long term effects on the environment or landscape."

In addition to this impending surveying, TAP says that it will carry out additional surveying in the autumn on both the onshore and offshore sections of the pipeline.

A final decision on the routing of the pipeline, which will transport gas from the Shah Deniz field in Azerbaijan, is due to be taken in 2013.