TAP pipeline group re-launches procurement process

LONDON, April 15 (Reuters) - The Trans Adriatic Gas Pipeline Group (TAP) said on Tuesday that it was re-launching a procurement process for goods and services that the project requires to transport Azeri gas into the European Union towards the end of this decade.

"TAP has taken the decision to re-launch its procurement process, following a review of its strategy and schedule. TAP will therefore initiate new pre-qualifications for goods and services that the natural gas pipeline project requires," it said in a statement.

The re-launch will be for Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) services such as onshore and offshore pipeline construction, compressor stations and the pipeline's receiving terminal, as well as for supply contracts, including procurement of steel pipes, TAP said.

TAP is planned to transport gas from the Shah Deniz II field in Azerbaijan to Europe towards the end of this decade

The approximately 870-kilometre-long pipeline will connect with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) near the Turkish-Greek border at Kipoi, cross Greece and Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before reaching southern Italy.

TAP's shareholders are BP (20 percent), SOCAR (20 percent), Statoil (Berlin: DNQ.BE - news) (20 percent), Fluxys (16 percent), Total (Brussels: FP.BR - news) (10 percent), E.ON (9 percent) and Axpo (5 percent). (Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov and Henning Gloystein; editing by Jason Neely)