Greece and Turkey are getting closer both metaphorically and literally as their first joint large scale energy project gets under way next Sunday when the two countries’ prime ministers will shake hands on the bridge over the Evros river, in Thrace, and inaugurate the Greek-Turkish gas interconnector. Built in almost record time, in less than 24 months, this 280 kms gas pipeline, which will connect the Turkish city of Karacabey to Komotinin in Greece, will bring natural gas from Turkey’s extensive gas network to the Greek gas grid. At present Greece imports natural gas via pipeline from Russia, through Bulgaria, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Algeria. Current needs exceed 3.5 billion cubic metres (BCM’s) per year with the prospect of those reaching 5.0 BCM’s by 2010.
Following a contract signed between Greece’s Public Gas Corporation (DEPA) and Turkey’s state owned oil and gas company BOTAS , Greece will gradually import some 0.75 BCM’s of gas a year starting from this month. According to senior government officials in Athens, the significance of the Greek-Turkish gas interconnector lies in the fact that Greece through this new pipeline connection obtains one more energy import gate thus diversifying its sources of gas supply. For the purposes of the Greek contract Turkey will be pumping through its gas grid some of its own gas production, which started in early summer in an offshore platform in the Black Sea some 200kms east of Istanbul.
It must be noted that Turkey, which is a big gas consumer on its own right with some 35 BCM’s per year, currently imports the majority of its gas supplies from Russia but also from Iran. Lately it has started to import very small quantities from Azerbaijan. On a long term basis the Greek-Turkish gas interconnector has a broader strategic significance in view of plans, currently under development, to built a gas pipeline to cross northern Greece and then to reach Italy via an underwater pipeline through the Adriatic. The plan is to pump some 12 to 15 BCM’s to the fast moving Italian gas market.