After almost four and a half years since the start of construction, the Trans Adriatic Pipeline is substantially complete. The TAP pipeline has been filled with natural gas from the Greek-Turkish border up to the pipeline receiving terminal in Southern Italy.The 878-kilometre gas pipeline began operations, the TAP consortium said in a statement on Sunday. TAP will transport natural gas from the giant Shah Deniz field in the Azerbaijan sector of the Caspian Sea to Europe.
“As a new transmission system operator, developed and built in compliance with best industry practices and standards, TAP enables double diversification: a new, reliable and sustainable energy route and source of gas reaching millions of European end-users, for decades to come,” TAP managing director, Luca Schieppati, said in the statement.
Murad Heydarov, the chairman of TAP’s board of directors, added that TAP “ensures that Europe can receive supplies from yet another source, while supporting the key EU objectives of achieving an integrated energy market and a sustainable, secure and diversified energy mix, contributing to ongoing streams towards clean energy transition”.
TAP is the European leg of the Southern Gas Corridor, project that will transport 10 billion cubic metres of new gas supplies from Azerbaijan to multiple markets in Europe. Connecting with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) at Greece’s border with Turkey, TAP stretches across northern Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before reaching Italy’s coast. TAP will carry 10 billion cubic metres of new natural gas supplies per year from Azerbaijan to markets in Europe.
The shareholders of TAP are BP, Azerbaijan’s state company Socar and Italy’s Snam with 20% each, Belgium’s Fluxys with 19%, Spain’s Enagas with 16% and Swiss-based Axpo with 5%.
