On February 10, Luca Schieppati, the Managing Director of TAP, said that the new long-term capacity of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) will be available at the end of 2025.

"According to the results of a market test to increase the capacity of the pipeline, an additional 1.2 billion cubic meters have been requested to be delivered from 2026 to December 2028 and the second batch from October 2026 to September 2033. We are signing transportation contracts for this new long-term capacity, which will be available at the end of 2025. Of this volume, 1 billion cubic meters will fall under the share of Italy, and 200 million cubic meters will be delivered to Albania," Schieppati explained.

According to him, after the completion of the process of submitting binding proposals on January 22, 2023, the TAP consortium begins the first stage of expanding the pipeline capacity [it is a continuation of the Trans-Anatolian pipeline (TANAP) to Europe, which supplies gas from the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea].

It is planned that from 2026, the pipeline will supply 1.2 billion cubic meters of additional gas per year under long-term contracts. "This marks the beginning of TAP's capacity expansion to double supplies to 20 billion cubic meters of gas per year by 2027. Since the increase in pipeline capacity depends on supply and demand, the full expansion will be achieved when, following the results of market tests, buyers confirm their interest in further increasing supplies," the report emphasized.

Schieppati further indicated that TAP's capacity would be doubled in stages. "The market test was launched in 2021. The first stage ended on January 22, and we plan to start the second stage in the second half of the year, most likely between September and October," he added.

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