TAP Names Companies for Greece, Albania Pipelaying
The Trans Adriatic Pipeline consortium has awarded the contracts for the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of cross-country onshore pipeline sections in Greece and Albania, the company announced March 4.
The building of the onshore, 760-km, 48-in pipeline has been split into five lots: three in Greece and two in Albania. But the 105-km subsea section construction contract across the Adriatic sea has not been awarded yet.
Two sections, with an overall length of 360 km in Greece, running from Kavala to Ieropigi on the Albanian border will be built by Italy’s Bonatti and Greece’s J&P AVAX joint venture.
France’s Spiecapag will construct the remaining sections: a 185-km stretch between Kipoi and Kavala in Greece and two sections totalling 215 km in Albania, from Bilisht to Topoje.
The company will also carry out the pipeline river crossing at the Greek-Turkish border, where TAP will be connecting to the Trans Anatolian Pipeline.
The selected contractors will begin work immediately in line with the project’s schedule to begin actual construction mid-2016. TAP’s EPC contractors will be responsible for further securing additional subcontractors to implement specific parts of the contract assignment.
TAP’s managing director Ian Bradshaw said at the southern gas corridor advisory board meeting in Baku that the line construction will start at late May-early June in Greece with a groundbreaking ceremony near Thessaloniki.
“The contracts for the construction of our pipeline’s onshore section are the largest that TAP will award. I want to congratulate Bonatti, J&P AVAX and Spiecapag for submitting bids that are not only technically robust and competitive but also in line with the highest standards and industry best practice,” he was quoted as saying in the statement.
Last December TAP awarded EPC contract for the onshore section in Italy, including the reception terminal, to Enereco and Max Streicher JV and Renco.
The first gas deliveries to Europe are planned for early 2020.
According to Azeri energy minister Natig Aliyev, TAP funding will be solved by the end of April. “I’m talking about all consortium members that will collectively borrow from financial institutions,” he said, but declined to give details.
TAP’s shareholders are BP (20%), Socar (20%), Italy's Snam (20%), Belgium's Fluxys (19%), Spain's Enagas (16%) and Swiss Axpo (5%).
Azerbaijan desk