TIRANA (Albania), January 24 (SeeNews) – The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) consortium said it has completed trenching in around 98% of the route of the gas project in Albania and Greece, accounting for over 758 km out of 765 km in total.
The pipeline is then buried at least 1 m under the ground, the consortium said in a Twitter post late on Wednesday.
Earlier this month, TAP said it reached a financial close, securing 3.9 billion euro ($4.4 billion) financing from public and private lenders.
In October, TAP completed the connection of the gas pipe with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) at the Turkish-Greek border.
TAP has also launched construction works in Albania for the 105 km offshore section across the Adriatic Sea that will link the gas pipeline to Italy’s transmission network.
Connecting with the TANAP at Greece's border with Turkey, TAP will stretch across northern Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before reaching Italy's coast where it will connect to the Italian natural gas network.
TAP is part of the Southern Gas Corridor, which also comprises the South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP) crossing Azerbaijan and Georgia, and TANAP.
The shareholders of TAP are BP, Azerbaijan’s state company Socar and Italy’s Snam with 20% each, Belgium’s Fluxys with 19%, Spain’s Enagas with 16% and Swiss-based Axpo with 5%.
($ = 0.87936 euro)