Azernews.Az

Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) plans to start offshore surveys in the Adriatic Sea this winter in order to collect additional data and samples to identify optimal offshore routing, Trend news agency reported, referring to TAP on Wednesday.

"TAP plans offshore surveys that will consist of various investigations along the proposed offshore pipeline route in the Adriatic Sea in international, Italian and Albanian waters. The purpose of these surveys is to conduct seabed mapping, identify potential obstacles along the route, as well as collect core samples of the seabed," TAP's report said.

TAP plans to conduct additional surveys in the coming months.

TAP project is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy and further into Western Europe. Gas to be produced within the second phase of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field development is considered as the main source for TAP.

TAP's initial pipeline capacity will be 10 billion cubic metres per year, but is easily expandable to 20 billion cubic metres per year. TAP's shareholders are AXPO of Switzerland (42.5 percent), Norway's Statoil (42.5 percent) and E.ON Ruhrgas of Germany (15 percent).