Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras Friday hailed a decision to build a pipeline that will bring natural gas from Azerbaijan to Europe via Greece, saying the investment will create thousands of new jobs, put the country on the regional energy map and reverse recent negative views on Greece.
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras Friday hailed a decision to build a
pipeline that will bring natural gas from
Azerbaijan
to
Europe
via
Greece
,
saying the investment will create thousands of new jobs, put the country on the
regional energy map and reverse recent negative views on
Greece
.
The Trans Adriatic Pipeline, or TAP, project aims to transport gas from the
Caspian region via
Greece
and
Albania
and
across the
Adriatic Sea
to southern
Italy
and
further into
Western Europe
. The project will open a new
so-called Southern Gas Corridor to
Europe
and
establish a new market outlet for natural gas from the Caspian.
The consortium building the pipeline--whose main owners are BP PLC,
Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR, and its Norwegian counterpart Statoil
ASA--chose TAP over the rival Nabucco West project, Gordon Birrell, BP's
regional president for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey said Friday.
"This is the first and important step in opening up the Southern Gas
Corridor and, as we look ahead, it will have a major role to play in
Europe
's
energy security and ensuring the diversification of gas supplies to Western and
South European markets," said TAP Managing Director Kjetil Tungland.
Almost two thirds of the pipeline--which has a total length of 870
kilometers--passes through Greece and is expected to bring some EUR1.5 billion
($1.96 billion) to the country. It will create 2,000 new jobs immediately
relating to the construction of the project and another 10,000 indirect jobs. It
is also expected to provide a boost to northern
Greece
,
which has a mounting unemployment issue.
"After the announcement of the TAP project, the catastrophic scenarios for
Greece
and
its exit from the euro are put to rest," Mr. Samaras said in a statement
released from
Brussels
,
where he was attending a European Union summit. "Who would invest that
amount of money in a country that is economically, socially and politically
dangerous?"
This has been a difficult month for
Greece
.
Recently, the country failed to attract a single bid for the privatization of
its natural-gas company Depa, putting a major dent in Greece's anticipated
privatization proceeds. A mini-political crisis then followed, after a dispute
over the sudden shutdown of the country's state broadcaster, which led to the
departure of junior partner Democratic Left from the country's three-party
coalition government.
The Depa deal in particular opened up a potential EUR1 billion hole in
Greece
's
privatization revenue target for the current year, while the sale of the
country's gambling monopoly OPAP threatens to collapse because of disputes
between the private consortium that won the bidding and the company's
management.
"The project puts
Greece
back
on the global energy map," said Konstantinos Filis, research director of
the
Institute
of
International
Relations
at
Panteion
University
in
Athens
. "It
changes the picture of the country, which seemed to be in systemic
danger--especially after the Depa failure."
The TAP deal is "the most significant positive economic development
regarding our country in the past 10 years," Mr. Samaras said.
The Greek premier, who has made energy a key pillar in
Greece
's
recovery effort, hopes that the project will boost the country's
recession-ravished economy. In early May, he traveled to
Azerbaijan
in a
bid to help clinch the deal, along with other potential bilateral projects.
Mr. Filis said this "could be the beginning of a positive news flow for
the country," but more needs to be done in order for that to happen.
"TAP is very important for the country, but it is only an indirect
investment.
Greece
will
move away from the vicious circle only if it implements reforms and adopts a
flexible investment plan in order to make it attractive to foreign
investments," he said.
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