As continuation of the TANAP project, in 2013 Shah Deniz Consortium chose TAP (Trans-Adriatic Pipeline) to transport Azerbaijani gas to Europe, though several routes (NABUCCO, ITGI (Turkey-Greece-Italy gas pipeline)) and SEEP (South East Europe Pipeline) were offered.
TAP, the continuation of South Caucasus gas pipeline (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum) and TANAP, will transport natural gas from the giant Shah Deniz II field in Azerbaijan, via Greece and Albania, and across the Adriatic Sea to Southern Italy, and further to Western Europe. Azerbaijani gas is scheduled to be delivered to Europe via this project in 2019.

The major rival to the project was Nabucco West gas pipeline and the triumph of TAP is related to some political and economic reasons:

Length of TAP is 870km, while Nabucco West, to get to Austria via Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, exceeds 1300km;

Implementation of TAP required 2,2 billion USD initially, while Nabucco West needed 7,9 billion USD.

Taking into consideration that the Nabucco West project faced a serious dissatisfaction from Russia in the background of gas disagreement between West and Russia, choosing the TAP project for taking Azerbaijani gas to Europe demands a less risk in its international policy.

Besides, Azerbaijani gas is supposed to be transported also to Austria, Switzerland, Germany and other countries through Italy. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia pledged in the conclusion of the 15th Meeting of Adriatic-Ionic Council in Brussels to support TAP first among the regional energy projects and this indicates the high global importance of the project.

Laman Khalilova,
"Azerbaijan Realities".