TAP route and infrastructure

The entire pipeline is buried at least one metre beneath the ground to protect the environment and minimise its impact on neighbouring communities. Only facilities such as the Pipeline Receiving Terminal (PRT), compressors and block valve stations are visible above ground. 

TAP begins at Kipoi in Greece, at the border with Türkiye. 550 kilometres of pipeline, with one compressor station near Kipoi and 23 block valve stations, extend across the country, to exit at the border with Albania, south-west of Ieropigi. 

The pipeline route travels from the municipality of Devoll, in Korça region, approximately 214 kilometres across land, before entering the Adriatic Sea. TAP has a metering station at Bilisht, near the Albanian-Greek border, with eight block valve stations and one landfall station. The pipeline arrives at the Adriatic coast 17 kilometres north-west of Fier. TAP has a compressor station 400 metres inland from the shoreline.

The subsea section of TAP sits on the Adriatic seabed for approximately 105 kilometres in the strait of Otranto, up to a depth of approximately 810 metres. In water less than 300 metres deep, pipes are concrete coated for mechanical protection and stability.

TAP arrives on the Italian coast north of San Foca via a 1.5 kilometre micro-tunnel, more than 15 metres below the beach surface. A final 8 kilometres of the pipeline end at a Pipeline Receiving Terminal (PRT), where the supervisory control centre for the entire pipeline operation is based, in the municipality of Melendugno.