Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend / The visit of the Chief Executive Director of the Greece Company of DEPA, Asimakis Papageorgiou, to Baku completed. Papageorgiou visited Azerbaijan to secure quantities from a new reserve, to be available on the market from 2012, Greek press reports.
Greece, Turkey and Italy are reportedly close to signing a three-party interstate agreement for the transmission of Azeri natural gas through the Turkey-Greece-Italy pipeline.
The Greek Development Minister, Dimitris Sioufas, informed Prime Minister of Greece, Costas Karamanlis, about this issue as well as developments on the planned South Stream natural gas pipeline.
After the agreement by Russia, Bulgaria and Italy to transmit Gazprom's natural gas through the South Stream pipeline from the Black Sea to Italy, the Turkey-Greece-Italy pipeline reverts to its previous plan to carry Azeri gas as an alternative to the Russian network. This is also the preference of the USA and the European Union. Italy's Edison and Greece's DEPA, who control the project, have no natural gas of their own, meaning that they must secure it from third parties.
On July 6 the meeting of the Azerbaijani-Greek Inter-Governmental Commission for Economic Co-operation in Athena focused on the issue of gas delivery.
Realizing Shah Deniz Stage 2 has been fixed to begin in 2013. Nearly 12 bln cu.m. of gas is expected to be exported from the field per year within Stage 2. The gas in the Stage 1 and Stage 2 will be exported via South Caucasus Pipeline (SCP). Presently the capacity of SCP equals at least 9 bln cu.m of gas per year and may be expanded up to 20 bln cu.m through constructing nearly five pumping stations. Statoil Azerbaijan is the commercial operator of Shah Deniz and Head of Azerbaijan Gas Supply Company in Stage 1.