The Italian Minister of Economic Development will visit Athens on Wednesday in a bid to promote the construction of the Greek-Italian gas pipeline, the Greek Development Ministry said Tuesday.
“There will be a protocol signing for the coordination of action to speed up the procedures of the construction of the pipeline,” the Ministry said in a statement.
Greece and Italy signed an agreement for the construction of the underwater section of the pipeline in 2005.
Greece’s Public Gas Corporation or DEPA and Italy’s Edison, the constructors of the section, have not completed the necessary feasibility studies yet, running well out of schedule. Initially, the project was scheduled to finish in 2010. Now DEPA sees it complete not before the end of 2011.
However, it is a common secret that there are enormous difficulties for the EUR350 million project to proceed well.
Neither Edison nor DEPA have managed to secure the appropriate gas supply contracts to enable its construction.