Total investment in the Interconnector-Turkey-Greece-Italy (ITGI) natural gas pipeline to bring Caspian gas via Turkey to Greece and Italy may reach 2.5 billion euros ($3.2 billion), the Turkey representative of energy company Edison said yesterday. In written answers to Reuters questions, Akin Ozkan said the largest chunk of the investment would be in Turkey but that financing talks would not begin until Caspian gas contracts had been finalized.
Edison leads the pipeline project, which also involves Greece’s gas company DEPA and Turkey’s Botas. “The total cost of ITGI will be around 2-2.5 billion euros,” Ozkan said. The ITGI project will import at least 8 billion cubic meters (bcm) and as much as 13 bcm of natural gas a year from the Caspian Sea basin via Turkey and Greece to southern Italy. “Both we and the banks want to clarify the natural gas purchase agreement before sorting out the project financing,” he said.
“We do not think there will be a problem with ITGI financing,” he added. The ITGI project is considered a possible threat to the EU-backed Nabucco pipeline project which is targeting access to the same Azeri Shah Deniz gas for its planned start-up phase. Turkey is backing both projects.