Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 27 / Trend A.Badalova/
The interconnector between Greece and Italy (IGI), which is a part of ITGY system, is extremely important for the security of supply of southeastern Europe, chairman and chief executive of the Public Gas Corporation of Greece (DEPA) Harry Sachinis said in interview to EurActiv.
"The link between Greece and Italy is extremely important for the security of supply of southeastern Europe, because in case of any disruptions for whatever reasons, the fact that there is a pipeline connecting Greece to Italy means that all of southeastern Europe can enjoy having this kind of back-up because you can bring back from Italy - reverse flow - or even from North Africa to Italy to Greece and to all southeastern Europe," Sachinis said.
He stressed that IGI will be completed in 2014, and that will enable to carry early Caspian gas before the gas from the second stage of Azerbaijani Shah Deniz gas condensate field development becomes available. Moreover, according to Sachinis, it will also enable to carry LNG gas that would come from our Revithoussa LNG terminal in Greece.
ITGI is one of the Southern Gas Corridor projects, which envisages gas supplies from the Caspian region and the Middle East to the EU countries.
Earlier this month Shah Deniz consortium excluded ITGI from the list of those being considered to export Azerbaijani gas to the European countries, and made TAP (Trans Adriatic Pipeline) a priority route for export of Azerbaijani gas to Italy. The decision was made in accordance with the previously announced criteria for the export of gas (10 billion cubic meters) under the Shah-Deniz-2 project to the European countries.
Talking about TAP Sachinis said that the project does not have all the necessary licences and approvals for it to be ready before the time that Shah Deniz II needs to make its final investment decision. "And that's a key thing because if that project is delayed because it doesn't have the appropriate regulatory approvals, licences and intergovernmental agreements in place that ITGI has, that puts Shah Deniz II at risk of delay," Sachinis said.
ITGI system includes the interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) and IGI. The planned capacity of ITGI is 11.8 billion cubic meters per year. The project is being developed by Italy's Edison SpA (EDN.MI) and DEPA.
TAP is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy and further into Western Europe. TAP's shareholders are EGL of Switzerland (42.5 percent), Norway's Statoil (42.5 percent) and E.ON Ruhrgas of Germany (15 percent). The total length of the pipeline is about 800 kilometers. The initial pipeline capacity of TAP will be 10 billion cubic metres per year, expandable to 20 billion cubic metres per year.