TAP Offshore Pipelay 'on Target to Start 2018'

Construction of the offshore part of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) remains on schedule to start 2018, according to TAP's Albania country manager, Shkelqim Bozgo.

“Further on, 2019 will be the testing period and commissioning of the project, and then comes flow of the gas”, Albanian Telegraph Agency reported August 8, citing Bozgo.

He added that work building TAP onshore Albania was almost halfway complete: “The current two years consist of the most intensive phase of the project and are expected to inject into the Albanian economy a total of €800mn."

Former TAP managing director Ian Bradshaw said earlier this year that total investment in TAP would be €4.5bn; at that time too, offshore construction was scheduled to begin next year.

Bozgo said one-third of that (€1.5bn) will be invested in Albania: “Naturally, 2017 and 2018 are the most intensive years of the project and it is expected that the investment level in each year is €400mn, about 4% of Albania's GDP, while the number of people that TAP has recruited in Albania is 2,000.”

TAP will transport gas from the phase 2 development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas and condensate field to EU markets. It will be connected to the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (Tanap) on the Turkish-Greek border, then run through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before landing in southern Italy. TAP's total length will be 878km, of which 550km in Greece, 215km in Albania, 105km subsea in the Adriatic Sea, and 8km onshore Italy. 

The deepest point of the pipeline below sea level will be 820 metres.

In June 2017, TAP said it had completed the shipment of all pipe and machinery for the Albanian section of the pipeline, weighing over 200,000 tons.

Azerbaijan Desk