Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

The Trans-Adriatic-Pipeline (TAP) has issued its third contract notice.

The notice was published in the EU Gazette, the official journal of the EU, TAP said on June 5.

The scope for this contract will include the engineering, procurement and construction of one compressor station in Albania near Fier, and one compressor station in Greece near Kipoi.

Construction of the compressor stations is planned to start in 2016 and to be completed in approximately two years.

The compressor stations will be constructed in accordance with the international industry standards on health and safety, located at a significant distance away from highly populated areas, causing minimum impact on the environment and local communities.

Companies interested in being pre-qualified for this contract need to request a pre-qualification questionnaire from TAP no later than June 16. Only a selected number of pre-qualified companies will be invited to participate in the tendering stages of the TAP's procurement process for the compressor stations construction.

The current pre-qualification is the third one, following contract notices on construction of Albanian roads and bridges and onshore pipeline construction services in Greece and Albania.

The next contract notices to be issued by TAP in the coming weeks will be the pre-qualification of companies supplying Turbo Compressors and Large Diameter Valves.

The Shah Deniz field, one of the world's largest gas-condensate fields, was discovered in 1999. Its reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic meters of gas. Overall, the field has proven to be a secure and reliable supplier of gas to Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, and Europe.

The gas which will be produced at the second stage of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field development will be the main source of the Southern Gas Corridor, which envisages the transportation of the Caspian gas to European markets.

The Shah Deniz consortium announced the selection of TAP as the main route for transporting its gas to Europe in late June. Another pipeline which was vying for Azerbaijan's gas transportation to Europe was Nabucco West.

Azerbaijan agreed to sell over 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year from the second phase of its Shah Deniz development to nine companies in the European Union in September 2013.

The contracts were signed for 25 years between SOCAR and the European utilities, including Axpo Trading AG, Bulgargaz EAD, Depa, Gas Natural Fenosa, Hera Trading Srl, Shell Energy Europe, Enel SpA, E.ON SE, and GDF Suez SA.

The initial capacity of TAP will amount to 10 billion cubic meters per annum with the possibility of expanding to 20 billion cubic meters per annum. The TAP's construction project is planned to start in 2015.