Step forward for opening the Southern Corridor.
Milan, October 25, 2011 – Edison, as promoter of the ITGI (Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy) gas transit corridor, welcomes the today’s agreement between Turkey and Azerbaijan over the gas transit to Europe as a key step forward for the opening of the Southern Gas Corridor. The agreement completes the legislative framework needed to develop the ITGI project.
ITGI, together with its spur-line from Greece to Bulgaria (IGB), represents the most advanced and competitive option to open the new Southern Gas Corridor to import gas from Azerbaijan to Europe. ITGI is the most mature pipeline project since all major regulatory, technical and environmental procedures are completed, allowing the project to start construction works as soon as gas from Shah Deniz 2 field is allocated from the on-going commercial bid.
ITGI meets European Union’s needs for diversify gas import sources and routes, increasing energy supplies security to all EU and particularly where it is most needed , i.e. Southern East Europe.
Furthermore, ITGI timely realization would pave the way to the development of a broader regional set of projects, connecting the additional gas resources which will be made available to the EU.
The ITGI project will be built on the basis of available gas from Shah Deniz 2 (10 billion cubic meters a year) and its capacity can be significantly expanded in order to guarantee transportation of additional supplies in the future.
ITGI project will use existing infrastructures in Turkey and Greece with a new pipeline to be built connecting Greece to Italy (IGI pipeline). IGI pipeline comprises two sections: IGI Onshore (600 km onshore pipeline in the Greek territory to be developed by Desfa, the Greek Transmission System Operator) and IGI Poseidon (200 km offshore pipeline across the Ionian Sea under development by IGI Poseidon SA, a joint venture between Edison and the Greek company Depa). From Greece a spur line to Bulgaria is under development, namely IGB pipeline (Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria). With a transport capacity of 3 to 5 billion cubic meters per year, IGB will be built by IGI Poseidon and Bulgaria’s BEH.
The EU acknowledged ITGI as a Project of European Interest and included it among the Southern Gas Corridor Projects of the European Recovery Plan with a 100 million Euro financing. The IGB pipeline was included in the same plan with 45 million Euro financing.
