ECONOMY
TAP issues invitations to tender for offshore section
Baku, June 10 AZERTAC
Trans Adriatic Pipeline AG (TAP) has issued an invitation to Tender (ITT) for Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Installation (EPCI) for the offshore section of the project. TAP’s 36-inch offshore part across the Adriatic Sea – between the coastlines of Albania and southern Italy – will be approximately 105 km in length.
The ITT is open to the companies who have pre-qualified following the contract notice TAP launched in February 2015.
TAP plans to award the contract for offshore EPCI by the end of 2015. Construction of the pipeline offshore section is set to begin in 2017.
The next Invitation to Tender that TAP will issue is offshore line pipes.
Knut Steinar Kvindesland, Senior Contract and Procurement Manager at TAP said: “Offshore pipeline construction is a technically complex project. As such, the selection of bidders who have been invited to tender has followed a rigorous pre-qualification process, particularly taking into consideration bidders’ ability to demonstrate a commitment to zero harm.”
TAP will transport natural gas from the giant Shah Deniz II field in Azerbaijan to Europe. The approximately 870 km long pipeline will connect with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) at the Turkish-Greek border at Kipoi, cross Greece and Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Southern Italy.
TAP’s routing can facilitate gas supply to several South Eastern European countries, including Bulgaria, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and others. TAP’s landfall in Italy provides multiple opportunities for further transport of Caspian natural gas to some of the largest European markets such as Germany, France, the UK, Switzerland and Austria.
TAP will promote the economic development and job creation along the pipeline route; it will be a major source of foreign direct investment and it is not dependent on grants or subsidies. With first gas sales to Georgia and Turkey targeted for late 2018, first deliveries to Europe will follow approximately a year later.
