Energy Headlines

Planners behind a new natural gas pipeline for the European market said contractors are invited to bid on offshore construction work in the Adriatic Sea.

"I am delighted to invite companies, including those from TAP's host countries, to submit expressions of interest [for offshore work]," Knut Steinar Kvindesland, procurement director for the Trans Adriatic pipeline, said in a Tuesday statement.

The TAP project consortium said it's inviting companies to bid on the construction and supply of 65 miles of pipeline through the Adriatic Sea. The greatest depth of the planned pipeline section between the coasts of Albania and southern Italy is about one half mile.

British energy company BP leads a project consortium tapping into natural gas off the coast of Azerbaijan. The company has awarded more than $1 billion in development contracts since selecting the TAP as its option for Azeri gas in 2013.

TAP is covered under a European network of pipelines dubbed the Southern Corridor, which are meant to add diversity to a regional market influenced heavily by Russia.