A consortium working to diversify the European energy sector with Azeri natural gas said it picked French contractor Technip to help steer the project forward.

Technip under the terms of the program management contract will help oversee development of the onshore portion of the construction of the Trans-Adriatic pipeline from Greece to Albania in Italy. The French company said it would work primarily from its offices in Rome and those of the TAP pipeline consortium in Switzerland.

BP, leading Azeri developments alongside a state-backed energy company, has awarded more than $1 billion in development contracts since selecting the TAP as its option for Shah Deniz in 2013. TAP would connect to the Trans-Anatolian natural gas project running through Turkey to the Greek border.

TAP is slated to transport natural gas from the second phase of the Shah Deniz natural gas field off the coast of Azerbaijan as early as 2019. Technip said the terms of its contract expire in the first quarter of 2020.

Lingering economic and geopolitical issues in Ukraine pose a threat to European natural gas supplies. Europe gets about a quarter of its gas needs met by Russia's Gazprom, accused of holding monopolies in the region, and the majority of that volume runs through Soviet-era pipelines in Ukraine.

TAP is part of the network of pipelines included in the Southern Corridor of gas programs meant to diversify a European energy sector dependent on Russia.

Pipeline construction is slated to begin in 2016.