Azerbaijan has begun natural gas deliveries to Germany and Austria through the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) announced this month.

The expansion brings the total number of countries purchasing Azerbaijani gas to 16. The deliveries follow a 10-year supply agreement signed last year with Germany’s state-owned SEFE, which aims to reach an annual volume of 1.5 billion cubic meters.

TAP serves as the critical final leg of the Southern Gas Corridor, an 877-kilometer (545-mile) pipeline system that transports gas from the Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea to European markets. 

The pipeline connects with the Trans Anatolian Pipeline at the Turkey-Greece border, traversing Albania and the Adriatic Sea before making landfall in southern Italy, with the project recently reaching a significant infrastructure milestone. 

Officials confirmed that expansion works at the Kipoi compressor station in Greece were completed ahead of schedule. 

As of Jan. 1, 2026, the upgrade provides an additional 1.2 billion cubic meters of long-term annual capacity to Europe.

"While Europe moves toward a lower-carbon future, I am convinced that TAP will remain an important contributor to a resilient and flexible energy system," said TAP chair Murad Heydarov.

The expansion is part of a broader 2022 strategic partnership with the European Union to double the corridor’s capacity to 20 billion cubic meters by 2027. 

To meet this demand, SOCAR and BP are moving forward with a $2.9 billion compression project at the Shah Deniz field, with construction expected to begin in the third quarter of 2026.

The TAP consortium is an equal joint venture between BP PLC, Enagás SA, Fluxys SA, Snam SpA, and SOCAR. Since starting commercial operations in late 2020, the pipeline has delivered more than 52 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe.