TAP will connect directly to TANAP on the Turkish-Greek border and transport natural gas via Greece and Albania, across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy. TAP is expected to play a key role in the EU’s strategic goal of energy security and diversification of energy sources as it will be the shortest and most direct method of exporting gas from Azerbaijan to European markets. TAP is also expected to have ‘‘physical reverse flow’’ features, which will allow gas from Italy to be diverted to Southeast Europe, if required. The “Intergovernmental Agreement” on TAP project was signed among Albania, Italy and Greece in February 2013. TAP groundbreaking ceremony was held on 17 May 2016. The pipeline is 878 km long. The commercial operations commenced at the end of 2020. Initial transportation capacity is 10 bcma (expandable to 20 bcma). According to the carried out tests, transportation capacity was determined as to be 11.5 bcma.