The newspaper claims that according to the most conservative forecasts, the construction of the Albanian section of the gas pipeline has been suspended for a month.
“A year later, from the ceremony of laying the foundation of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) in May 2016, the work on the construction of this gas pipeline was 38% completed in accordance with the planned schedule,” the report of the consortium for the implementation of this project says.
According to the consortium, to date, 100 km of underground pipes have been laid in Greece, and Albania has reconstructed and built roads and bridges within the framework of the project.
However, not all runs smoothly in the construction of the Albanian section of TAP, designed to deliver Azerbaijani gas to Europe, as stated in the pipeline consortium. The construction is currently suspended for an indefinite period of time.
According to the publication of Tirana Times, the construction work is suspended because of the unexpected discovery of archaeological findings in the conduct of the pipeline. According to the newspaper, an archaeological site that covers an extensive period from the early Iron Age to the 10th century AD was found near the village of Turan in the south-east of the country. More than 30 archaeologists have already arrived at the site of the find. They are going to study and preserve the unexpected discovery.
The newspaper claims that according to the most conservative forecasts, the construction of the Albanian section of the gas pipeline has been suspended for a month.
According to the schedule of works, the construction of the 215-kilometer Albanian section of the gas pipeline will be completed in 2019, and the first deliveries of Caspian gas to Europe are scheduled for 2020. Earlier, for about a year obstacles were created to TAP under the pretext of environmental problems in southern Italy.
It should be noted that the total length of TAP is 878 km, of which 550 km pass through the northern part of Greece, 215 km through Albania, 105 km through the Adriatic Sea and 8 km through Italy.
* The TAP shareholders are: SOCAR (20%), BP (20%), Snam (20%), Fluxys (19%), Enagás (16%) and Axpo (5%).
