After almost four and a half years since the start of construction of Trans Adriatic Pipeline, the project is substantially complete, said TAP AG, a company in charge of the construction and operation of Trans-Adriatic gas pipeline (TAP).
The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline has been filled with natural gas from the Greek-Turkish border to the receiving terminal in southern Italy. It was noted that TAP is currently finalizing preparations for launching the commercial operations and offering capacity to the market in alignment with the adjacent transmission system operators.
The statement said that the interconnection point between TAP pipeline and the natural gas transmission system of Snam Rete Gas in Puglia (Italy) is expected to be completed and ready to transport gas by mid-November 2020.
TAP project envisages 878 km long pipeline that will connect to the Trans-Anatolian (TANAP) near the Turkish-Greek border and cross Greece, Albania and Adriatic Sea before reaching its final destination in Italy. Current shareholders of TAP AG are British Petroleum (20 %), Azeri state-owned SOCAR (20 %), Italian Snam (20 %), Belgian Fluxys (19 %), Spanish Enagas (16 %) and Swiss Axpo with 5 % of the shares. The initial capacity of the pipeline is 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year, with an option to expand the capacity to 20 billion cubic meters. The cost of the project was initially estimated at some 6 billion euros, but in 2016 CEO of TAP AG Ian Bradshaw confirmed that the construction should cost 4.5 million euros. The construction of the Greek section of the pipeline was launched on 17 May 2016, while construction works on the Albanian section started on 30 September same year. The works on the 105 kilometers long offshore section between Albania and Italy started in October 2018.
