TAP Advances Pipelay Ops Off Albania

Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP)’s first ever offshore pipelines in Albania were recently pulled ashore. 

For this operation, TAP’s engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contractor for the offshore section of the project, Saipem, used its pipelay barge Castoro 10.

Steel pipes were welded together on board the vessel, which was located 1.4 kilometers from the beach. The welds were then tested and the pipeline was lowered onto the seabed. The first 1.8 kilometers of welded pipe was pulled ashore at the landfall near Fier.

Saipem’s 139-meter long and 36-meter wide Castoro 10 pipelay barge now continues to lay pipes in Albanian shallow waters, to be followed by fibre-optic cable installation and backfilling offshore and at the landfall.

TAP marked the start of construction works for the offshore pipeline section in October 2018.

TAP’s offshore section, linking the Albanian and the Italian coasts, is 105 kilometers long.

The pipes will be laid on the Adriatic seabed – 37 kilometers in Albanian territorial waters, 25 kilometers in Italian territorial waters and 43 kilometers in international waters.

The deepest point of the pipeline will be more than 810 meters beneath sea level. Approximately 9,000 pipes, with a 36-inch diameter, will be used, weighing approximately 100,000 tonnes in total.