June 30, 2005

Turkey, Greece pipeline work starts

ATHENS

Construction of the Turkey-Greece natural gas pipeline is scheduled to start at the beginning of July, Greek Development Minister Dimitris Sioufas said earlier this week.

The 300-kilometre pipeline will run from Bursa, Turkey, to Komotini in Greece and is designed to transport Caspian and Central Asian natural gas to Europe.

Initially, the pipeline will transport 3.5 billion cubic metres of gas a year, but will increase to 11.5 billion cubic metres a year once the pipeline is connected to two other planned gas pipelines, Sioufas said.

The first of these will run for 600 kilometres across northern Greece from Komotini to the northwest Greek port of Stavrolimena, where it will connect with a 220-kilometre-long pipeline under the Ionian Sea to Italy.

The underwater section will be built by Greece’s natural gas supplier Depa and Italy’s Edison SpA.

Construction of the two pipelines will be mainly funded by the European Union as well as the Greek and Italian governments.

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