On February 24, the chief executives of Russian gas monopoly Gazprom,
Italy’s Edison and Greek state gas supplier DEPA – Alexey Miller, Marc
Benayoun and Theodoros Kitsakos – signed in Rome a memorandum to develop
a natural gas pipeline between Greece and Italy “that will make
possible the implementation of the southern route for the supply of
Russian gas to Europe,” the three companies said in a press release.
The agreement was signed after the meeting of Miller and Italy’s
Economic Development Minister Federica Guidi in Rome on February 24. At
the meeting, Giorgos Tsipras, general secretary of Greece’s Foreign
Ministry, was also present.
“The agreement reflects interests of the parties in the route of
Russian natural gas deliveries across the Black Sea via third countries
to Greece and from Greece to Italy. To that goal, the parties intend to
take advantage and make use of work performed by Edison and DEPA within
the ITGI Poseidon project,” the press release said.
The Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy (ITGI) was shelved after it
was excluded from the race to transport gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz
field across Greece and via the Ionian Sea to Italy. But DEPA never
gave up on the planned pipeline and it may now be used to transport
Russian gas, especially since the planned Turkish Stream pipeline was
frozen, following the deterioration of relations between Moscow and
Ankara.
“Development of intra-European gas transport capacities is an
important component of improving reliability of supplies of natural gas,
including the Russian one, to consumers all over Europe,” Miller said.
Benayoun said, “The potential development of this southern supply
route, that is planned to be implemented in full compliance with EU laws
and regulation, will increase Italy’s energy security of supply as well
as its role as an important natural gas supply hub in Southern Europe,
according to Italy’s National Energy Strategy”.
For his part, Kitsakos said, “The revival of ITGI Poseidon increases
Europe’s energy security with an additional supply route that upgrades
the role of Greece as a gate of natural gas via diversified sources and
routes”.
http://neurope.eu/article/gazprom-depa-edison-revive-greek-pipe-to-italy/