Greek energy company IGI Poseidon signed a cooperation agreement with
U.S. Energy Company Noble for feasibility work and viability assessment
for a pipeline in the east Mediterranean, the company announced late on
Thursday.
The agreement contains feasibility works or
[technically] Preliminary Front End Engineering Design, Pre-FEED
activities for a pipeline directly between the east Mediterranean region
and Greece, according to the press release.
IGI Poseidon
proclaimed that the Pre-FEED studies are currently being finalized by a
consortium of major engineering companies - IntecSea and C&M
Engineering, and by the global information company IHS. The studies
indicate that the project is technically feasible, well within the most
advanced technology available and represents an economically viable
export option.
The East Mediterranean region has several natural
gas fields which are not commercialized yet via pipelines or LNG
facilities, such as the Leviathan field with 621 billion cubic meters
(bcm) in capacity, the Tamar field with 283 bcm in offshore Israel and
the relatively small Aphrodite field with 127 bcm capacity in offshore
Greek Cypriot administration. Moreover, Italian energy company Eni
announced a new discovery in offshore Egypt with 850 bcm capacity.
Turkey
and Israel have been conducting high level talks to normalize bilateral
relations while experts concur that the realization of a natural gas
pipeline from Israel to Turkey is a key motivator.
IGI Poseidon
announced that the Eastern Mediterranean (EastMed) Pipeline Project is a
European Project of Common Interest in which the ongoing development
activities are supported by the European Union through the Connecting
Europe Facility (CEF) co-financing program.
According to the press
release, a possible EastMed pipeline project for an offshore/onshore
pipeline would be approximately 1,900 km long, directly connecting East
Mediterranean resources to Greece via Cyprus and Crete and the potential
project would be designed to transport up to 16 bcm per year from the
offshore gas reserves in the Levantine Basin (Cyprus and Israel) as well
as from the gas reserves in Greece.
IGI Poseidon S.A. is a
company incorporated in Athens and equally owned by DEPA S.A. and
Edison. The company is trying to develop three major gas pipeline
projects: the Poseidon Pipeline, the IGB Pipeline and the EastMed
Pipeline.
(Anadolu Agency)