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Preparatory work for Trans Adriatic Pipeline is on track of completion

04 June 2009 16:40 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Rashad Suleymanov - APA-Economics. The Preparatory work for the construction of Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) is on track of completion, said Robert Klein, TAP Project Managing Director at the International Caspian Oil and Gas Conference in Baku.

TAP is a proposed natural gas pipeline project to transport natural gas from Greece via Albania to Italy.

According to him, the pipeline route has been selected, survey was conducted and negotiations on some issues, including on the issue of obtaining a special permit are currently under way with the Government of Albania, he added.

According to him, the pipeline will run through the Adriatic Sea at a depth of 820 meters and at an altitude of 1800 meters on the mountainous territory of Albania.

â€Negotiations are currently under way on the construction of large a storage facility in Albania. The area chosen in Albania is reliable from seismic point of view. In the case of an emergency, gas supply will be continued from this storage,â€ he added.

He noted that the EU and Italy support the project as the shortest and profitable route in the southern corridor.

Initial throughput capacity of the pipeline is 10 billion cubic meters with the possibility to double the capacity to 20 billion cubic meters in the future.

The investment decision is expected by the end of 2009, and the pipeline is scheduled to become operational earliest in 2012. The construction costs are expected to be about â‚¬1.5 billion.