Construction of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) in Greece is expected to begin in the middle of 2016 according to Rickard Skoufias, TAP’s Project Director. Speaking yesterday at an energy conference in Athens, he said the pipeline would run from the Turkish border to Italy via Albania and the Adriatic sea.
The consortium behind the project has signed partnerships with 150 Greek companies, some of which have won major tenders for the supply of the pipes, infrastructure sub-projects and the installation of the pipeline. Preparations have included 450 meetings with communities and residents of areas through which the pipeline passes to agree on compensation for the owners and users of land that’s affected.
There were other signs of optimism at the conference, as Agar Mammadov, CEO of SOCAR Greece expressed his willingness to proceed quickly with the completion of the DESFA acquisition. The Azeri company SOCAR Greece emerged as the highest bidder for the acquisition of the majority of shares of Desfa but the transaction has not been able to push the deal through the review and control process of the European Commission.
Hopes for the deal going through were dealt a blow, however, as the Belgian firm Fluxys has apparently gone back on a previous commitment to buying a stake in DESFA, which is the operator of Greece’s gas transmission network.
