TAP and E.ON New Build and Technology (ENT), who is conducting the onshore engineering for the TAP project, have implemented a two staged pre-qualification process.
TAP will require approximately 400,000 t of steel pipe to lay approximately 800 km of 12.2 m pipeline, over a three year construction period.
Steel pipe suppliers who wish to apply are required to demonstrate that they will be able to produce the steel volumes needed, on time and according to TAP’s specifications.
TAP Project Development Director Sigurd Hamre said “The main goal of the pre-qualification is to ensure that there are enough high quality steel pipes available on the market when TAP starts construction in 2015.”
“TAP is therefore beginning the pre-qualification for steel pipes in advance of its final investment decision, in order to remain fully aligned with the Shah Deniz II gas field development in Azerbaijan.”
TAP is currently in the front-end engineering design stage (FEED) awaiting final decision of the Shah Deniz Consortium on its preferred gas transportation solution to Europe.
Should TAP be selected by mid-June 2013, it will be able to start construction in 2015 with the first gas flowing by the end of 2018.
TAP is a natural gas pipeline project. The pipeline will transport gas from the Caspian region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy and further into Western Europe.
The project is aimed at enhancing security of supply as well as diversification of gas supplies for the European markets. TAP will open a new southern gas corridor to Europe and establish a new market outlet for natural gas from the Caspian.
TAP also envisages physical reverse flow of up to 80 per cent to further ensure security of supply during any operational interruption of gas deliveries.
The TAP route will be approximately 800 km in length (approximately Greece 478 km; Albania 209 km; offshore Adriatic Sea 105 km; Italy 5 km). TAP’s highest elevation point will be 1800 m in Albania’s mountains, while its lowest part offshore will be at 810 m of depth.
The onshore part of the pipeline will have a diameter of 1.2 m, while the diameter of the offshore segment will be 0.91 m.
TAP’s shareholders are Axpo of Switzerland (42.5 per cent), Norway’s Statoil (42.5 per cent) and E.ON Ruhrgas of Germany (15 per cent).