Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), a joint project by BP, SOCAR, Snam, Fluxys, Enagas and Axpo to complete the most western section of the Southern Gas Corridor, began laying the first of its 13,000 pipes along the 215 km route in Albania.

Altogether the pipeline runs 878 kilometers (545 miles) long from the Shah Deniz field in Azerbaijan to Turkey, then Greece, then goes up to 1,800 meters (5,900 feet) high in Albania and 820 meters (2,690 feet) deep under the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy.

First deliveries of gas to Europe are expected in 2020.

TAP Managing Director Ian Bradshaw said: “I am delighted to be standing here today. TAP has made huge progress over these last few years and the evidence is what you see here today: steel pipes on the ground, heavy machinery in the background, right of way being cleared and trenches dug waiting for pipe to be laid. All this, with many hundreds of thousands of safe hours worked."