Turkey’s first delivery of gas to Greece from Azerbaijan’s Shakh Deniz field will be delayed until the second week of August, a senior Turkish Energy Ministry official said on Friday.
Earlier this month the country’s energy minister had said that Turkey was ready to receive gas from Shakh Deniz and would send it to Greece at the end of July.
The official told Reuters the pipeline across the Meric River along the border had not been completed as planned. “The first export of natural gas to Greece will not happen in July as had been planned. Because construction of the Meric section has not been completed, it cannot happen until the second week of August,” the official said.
The official said 685,000 cubic meters of gas would be sent through the line daily this year. “In this case, exports in 2007 will amount to just some 90 million cubic meters,” he said. Exports in 2007 had been initially targeted at 250 million cubic meters.
The $300 million, 285-km Turkey-Greece pipeline, which will be extended to Italy, has an annual capacity of around 12 billion cubic meters and will hook up to a southern European network supplying gas to countries in the region.
Turkey, which produces almost no natural gas or oil, is a key transit route from energy-rich Caspian and Central Asian countries to Europe.
(Reuters)