TAP “Trans Adriatic Pipeline Pre-commissioning” is Techfem project of 2020

Trans Adriatic Pipeline, also known as TAP, is a gas pipeline transmission system with a length of approx. 900 km, connecting the Greek-Turkish border and Italy across Greece and Albania, allowing the transportation of natural gas from the Caspian sea.

The infrastructure features a 36” diameter pipeline in the offshore and Italian sections and a 48” diameter in the onshore sections in Greece and Albania.

Techfem team executed the pre-commissioning operations of the 105 km offshore pipeline link from Albania to Italy, with a maximum depth pf 810 m.

The site operations included:

• Flooding with filtered /UV treated seawater;
• Cleaning and gauging;
• Hydraulic test at 188 bar;
• Pipeline desalinization with fresh water;
• Dewatering by means of dry compressed air;
• Final drying and packing for pipeline preservation until first gas injection.

In addition to the aforementioned operations, the team faced complex environmental issues, focusing on everything involved with the collection and management of rainwater and to air and noise pollution.

Particulate Matter (PM₁₀) and Nitrogen Oxides (NO_x) emissions have been drastically reduced by using state-of-the-art motors for the air compressors.

Environmental studies and mitigation techniques have been developed to reduce noise pollution. We designed and certified environmentally-friendly noise barriers to achieve high performance and comply with the stringent noise limits demanded by the present legislation.

Lastly, we developed and created an integrity monitoring system for the pipeline microtunnel at the Italian shore approach with the application of an optical fibre system set up with Bragg grids.

The monitoring system will allow the monitoring of the facility integrity for the next 50 years, in accordance with regulatory requirements.

The pre-commissioning campaign was completed more than 10 days ahead of schedule, thanks to a painstaking effort and utmost dedication of the Techfem team.

Whatch the video on our Youtube channel!