TAP completes project financing

The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) has completed its 3.9-billion-euro project financing, paving the way for construction to be completed for start-up in 2020, its managing director said on Friday.

TAP, the final leg of a $40 billion project called the Southern Gas Corridor to transport gas from Central Asia to Western Europe, is a cornerstone of the European Union's energy security policy to wean the bloc off Russian gas supplies.

With the first delivery of gas to Europe expected in 2020, TAP will be the first non-Russian gas pipeline to supply Europe since the Medgaz link, which started deliveries from Algeria to Spain in 2011.

TAP will transport up to 10 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas per year from the Shah Deniz II field in Azerbaijan through Greece to Italy. [Reuters]