New European gas line inching forward

BAAR, Switzerland, Oct. 29 (UPI) -- A pipeline consortium planning to send more non-Russian gas to the European market said it was on pace to start consortium by next year.

The Trans-Adriatic Pipeline consortium announced it awarded a contract to Salzgitter Mannesmann International, a leader in European steel, to provide 48-inch pipelines for the onshore sections of the planned gas artery through southern Europe.

TAP is slated to transport natural gas from the second phase of the Shah Deniz natural gas field off the coast of Azerbaijan as early as 2019. BP, leading Azeri developments alongside a state-backed energy company, has awarded more than $1 billion in development contracts since selecting the TAP as its option for Shah Deniz in 2013.

TAP would connect to the Trans-Anatolian natural gas project running through Turkey to the Greek border.

"TAP plans to award several more large contracts by the end of the year and," TAP Managing Director Ian Bradshaw said in a statement. "This will enable pipeline construction to begin in Greece, Albania and Italy in 2016 as planned."

Lingering economic and geopolitical issues in Ukraine pose a threat to European natural gas supplies. Europe gets about a quarter of its gas needs met by Russia's Gazprom, accused of holding monopolies in the region, and the majority of that volume runs through Soviet-era pipelines in Ukraine.

TAP is part of a broader network of gas pipeline networks meant to diversify the European energy sector.