Trans-Adriatic Gas Pipeline
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Trans-Adriatic Gas Pipeline (TAP) is a proposed natural gas pipeline that will run from Greece to Italy, via Albania and the Adriatic Sea. The route will link Europe to a new gas source in the Caspian (Shah Deniz II).[1]
Contents
Location
The Trans Adriatic Pipeline will run for approximately 478km in Greece, 204km in Albania, 105km offshore in the Adriatic Sea and five kilometers in Italy. The Italian section will run for 45km offshore as well. The pipeline will also be connected with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) near the Turkish-Greek border at Kipoi.
Project Details
- Owner: BP (20%), SOCAR (20%), Statoil (20%), Fluxys (16%), Total (10%), E.ON (9%), and Axpo Trading (5%)
- Proposed capacity: 10 billion cubic meters per year, expansion up to 20 billion cubic meters per year
- Length: 870 kilometers
- Status: Under Construction
- Start Year:2026[2]
Background
The $1.8 billion, 870 kilometer transnational pipeline will connect to the Italian gas network in Southern Italy and will transport up to 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year. The project also has a provision which will allow for a possible future expansion that would increase the capacity to 20 billion cubic meters of gas per year.[1]
TAP is part of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) development, linking the Shah Deniz 2 gas field in Azerbaijan to Turkey and Europe and also provides a link to the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) near the Turkish-Greek border at Kipoi. The corridor could also be used in the future to deliver gas from the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Eastern Mediterranean. Tap is a key piece in the Southern Gas Corridor which ultimately seeks to decrease dependence on Russian gas.[3]
As of December 2017, the pipeline was reported to be 50% complete and on-track for completion by 2020. However, local and regional resistance, coupled with protests, may slow down the completion of the pipeline or even cause the project to relocate the route of the pipeline. [4]
Technical Details
At its highest point the pipeline will rise up to 1,800m in Albania, and reach its lowest point at 810m in the Adriatic Sea. The proposed route is the shortest possible route in the southern gas corridor.[1]
The onshore section of the pipeline will be built with pipes of 48in diameter. The offshore section will have a diameter of 36in.[1]
The TAP will have two compressors, one in Greece and the other on the Albanian coast. A pipeline receiving terminal (PRT) and a combined pressure reduction, metering and pigging station will be built in the province of Lecce. It will be linked to the Italian grid.[1]
Financing
Despite persistent protests in different countries which will host the pipeline, the European Investment Bank delivered on a much anticipated loan of 1.5 billion euros towards the TAP project's implementation. The loan was delayed several months due to increased scrutiny over the pipeline. The loan was seen a crucial source of financing for the project.[5]
The pipeline has also been added to the European Commission's Projects of Common Interest (PCI) list, making it eligible for public funding. It has already been granted 14.3 million EUR ($15.9 million USD) of public funding. According to the European Commission, "TAP Pipeline: new onshore and offshore pipeline between Greece/Turkey and Italy with a total length of approx. 878 km (773 km onshore and 105 km offshore). Connecting with TANAP at the Greek-Turkish border, TAP will cross Northern Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before reaching Southern Italy, where it connects to the Italian gas network. The initial capacity is 10 bcm/y. The power of the compressor station(s) is 90 MW.For the interconnection of TAP with the Greek transmission system a metering and Regulating station (capacity of 142 GWh/d) will be built in Nea Messimvria. Furthermore, a compressor station (27 MW) will be built in Nea Messimvria in order to enable flow from the Greek system to TAP. Commissioning of the last part of the PCI project enabling the Greek gas transmission system to inject gas to TAP will be commissioned in 2024."[2]
Opposition
Italian portion
While it has been reported that the project is anywhere between 50% and 66% of the way complete, work on the project’s Italian section has stalled and is behind schedule due to opposition from both residents in the town of Melendugno and local and regional authorities. Construction work is moving forward both in Albania, even though there is widespread dissatisfaction among stakeholders owing to a flawed compensation and land acquisition process conducted by the TAP company. Construction is also progressing in Greece, despite protests and resistance from communities and farmers in the north-east of the country related to the pipeline’s routing through both highly fertile agricultural land and seismic areas close to residences.[6]
Melendugno in the region of Puglia in Southern Italy has been the site of continuous protests against the pipeline. The town of Melendungno was reportedly put on lock-down by Italian authorities using a Mussolini-era law, ordinance Decreto Regio (Royal Decree) No 773, which dates back to 1931. This ordinance put in effect by the central government's military police effectively put the territory surrounding TAP construction site on lock-down and under the full discretion of the police.Jon Stone, [7]
The specific area of the confrontation - between local residents, officials, and activists on one side, and the police and the central government on the other - had been spurred on by the uprooting of thousands of centuries-old olive trees to make way for the pipeline. During the lock-down, laborers found it difficult to enter the site for planting while residents also complained of property destruction. Up to this point, protesters had been generally successful in staving off the progress of the pipeline construction, delaying the project and frustrating the consortium of companies involved in the development of the project.[7]
Albanian and Greek
Farmers in both Albania and Greek who are being affected by the pipeline have been at the forefront of the protests in their respective countries. Farmers in Greece have attempted to block the pipeline entirely while Albanian farmers are seeking elusive compensation for the use of their land by the pipeline's construction and development.[8]
In Albania, many farmers received compensation for their land but were not at all satisfied, explaining that their loss of income and property was not covered. In addition to the lack of satisfactory compensation necessary to maintain many farmers' livelihood, the rules and mechanisms for compensation were considered non-transparent and vague, leaving farmers in a vulnerable position.[9]
In Greece, farmers went not consulted about the pipeline's path which will pass over valuable, fertile agricultural land. While some farmers were offered compensation in Kavala, they felt the compensation was not nearly enough to offset the monetary loss from the pipeline's development. Others were in the dark about the pipeline's development on their land until diggers arrived.[10]
In Serres, protests ensued while community residents' concerns over a planned gas compressor station in a nearby floodplain went unheeded. . The station will be close to villages and there is no emergency plan in place. Efforts demanding that the local authority hold TAP accountable had failed.[10]
Articles and resources
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), Italy, Greece, Hydrocarbons-Technology, accessed April, 2018
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Gas pipeline from Greece to Italy via Albania and the Adriatic Sea European Commission, accessed December 11, 2019
- ↑ The Southern Gas Corridor and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), European Investment Bank, accessed April, 2018
- ↑ Stephen Jewkes, TAP pipeline on course for first gas to Italy in early 2020, Reuters, December 22, 2017
- ↑ Sam Morgan, EU bank approves largest ever energy loan, for TAP pipeline, Euractiv, February 6, 2018
- ↑ Trans-adriatic Pipeline Bank Track, accessed April, 2018
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Italy uses Mussolini-era law to place community on military lockdown over pipeline project, Independent, November 30, 2017
- ↑ Fatjona Mejdini, Katja Lihtenvalner, Greek, Albanian Farmers Unite Against Adriatic Pipeline, Balkan Insight, March 28, 2018
- ↑ Sven Haertig-Tokarz, Between TAP and a hard place – Albanian farmers receive peanuts after losing land and livelihoods to gas pipeline, Bank Watch, November 30, 2017
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Jo Ram, Sara Shoraka, “If the company wants the pipeline to pass through our region, it will first have to pass over our bodies.” October 11, 2017
