The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) consortium will invite bids for construction works on the project at the end of 2014 or the beginning of 2015, the Athens News Agency-Macedonian Press Agency reported.
The consortium said that Greek companies will be given a head start provided that they meet the tender requirements.
TAP will transport natural gas from Shah Deniz II to Europe along an approximately 870 kilometre long pipeline that will connect with the Trans Anatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP) near the Turkish-Greek border at Kipoi, cross Greece and Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in Southern Italy. TAP’s routing can facilitate gas supply to several South Eastern European countries, including Bulgaria, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and others.