The ceremony to lay foundation of the Trans Adriatic pipeline (TAP) took place in the Greek city of Salonica yesterday.
The high ranking officials, such as European Commission Vice President Marosh Shefchovich, special envoy of the US Department of States for International Energy Affairs Amos Hochstein, Greek Premier Alexis Tsipras, Georgian Premier Georgii Kvirikashvili, Azerbaijani Vice Premier Yagub Eyubov, Azerbaijani Energy Minister Natig Aliyev, Bulgarian Energy Minister Temenuzhk Petkov, TAP Managing Director Yen Bradshaw and representatives of the companies, which are partners of the TAP consortium, including BP (20%), SOCAR (20%), Snam (20%), Fluxys (19%), Enagas (16%) and Axpo (5%), have attended the ceremony.
At the ceremony Greek Premier Alexis Tsipras said that thanks to the project, the country with the unemployment rate of 24% will have 8,000 new jobs. He said the TAP construction will bring 2.3 billion Euro into the Greek economy.
On March 3, 2016 the European Commission approved the contract on the TAP construction, which Athens concluded with the Swiss Trans Adriatic Pipeline AG company in compliance with the European Union legislation. The document reads that only private investors will fund the TAP construction and emergence of the new route of gas supplies will significantly increase competition at the EU markets.
Brussels believes that about 10 bcm of gas a year will be exported via TAP, which will cover about 17% of Italy’s consumption and reduce dependence of the south of Europe on the current suppliers.
The length of the pipeline is 878 km, of which 545 km will pass through Greece, 215 km through Albania, 105 km via the Adriatic Sea bottom and 8 km through the south of Italy. The highest point of the pipeline will be located in Albania’s mountains (1,800 meters) and the lowest one on the sea bottom (820 meters). Total investments into the gas pipeline will reach about 5 billion Euro.
