To date, approximately 65 percent of the 13,000 pipes used for the onshore section of the TAP pipeline in Albania have arrived. The work on the eastern segment of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) will start in 2017.

TAP started the transport of some 4,900 steel line pipes, mostly 18 meters long, from the main marshalling yard in Durres towards the Korca region, Albania, said the message on TAP’s website.

TAP’s contractor Spiecapag and its selected partner and subcontractor, Albanian company Diamant shpk, are undertaking this process. TAP is a part of the Southern Gas Corridor which is one of the priority energy projects for the EU.

TAP project envisages transportation of gas from the Stage 2 of development of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas and condensate field to the EU countries.

The 870-kilometer pipeline will be connected to the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) on the Turkish-Greek border, run through Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Italy's south.

TAP’s route through Albania will be approximately 215 km onshore and 37 km offshore in the Albanian section of the Adriatic Sea. It starts at Bilisht Qender in the Korca region at the Albanian border with Greece, and arrives at the Adriatic coast 17 km north-west of Fier, 400 meters inland from the shoreline.