Gas company DEPA has signed an agreement with Italy’s Edison for the construction of a 500-million-euro underwater pipeline linking the two countries in one of Greece’s largest energy projects.
DEPA said the company that is to design, build and develop the 203-kilometer pipeline will be called IGI Poseidon and will be 50 percent held by each of the two companies. Setting up IGI Poseidon opens the door to supplying the large Western European markets with natural gas from Caspian countries, said DEPA president Makis Papageorgiou.
The project, expected to start operating in 2012, will link Greece’s Epirus, in the country’s north, with Italy’s Apulia. It will be connected to the Greek-Turkish gas link in Komotini via a 590-kilometer above-ground pipeline that will be constructed by DEPA subsidiary DESFA. Talks have started, along with Edison, on the countries in the Caspian region, particularly Azerbaijan, that are to supply the pipeline with natural gas, the Greek company added.
(KATHIMERINI, 12/06/2008)