Edison, Depa to develop Turkey-Greece-Italy natural gas transit corridor

27 July 2007

At their meeting held in Rome yesterday Pier Luigi Bersani, Italy''s minister of economic development, Dimitris Sioufas, Greece''s minister of development and Hilmi Güler, Turkey''s minister of energy and Natural resources, signed an intergovernmental agreement to develop a system of pipelines to import natural gas from the Caspian Basin and the Middle East, where over 20 per cent of the world''s reserves are located (30,000 billion cubic meters of natural gas), that pass through Turkey and Greece.

The three governments recognize the strategic importance of this natural gas transit corridor, the infrastructure construction of which is being handled by Edison in Italy, Depa and Desfa in Greece and Botas in Turkey, to speed up the construction to have the pipeline operational by 2012.

The Turkey-Greece-Italy corridor consists of three sections: the Turkish network of natural gas pipelines, which will be enlarged to allow the transmission of natural gas destined for the Greek and Italian markets; the project to connect the Turkish and Greek networks (ITG), which will go on stream in 2007 with a maximum transmission capacity of about 11.5 billion cubic maters of natural gas a year; and the project to connect the Greek and Italian networks (IGI), which will have a transmission capacity of about 8 billion cubic maters of natural gas a year when up and running within 2012.

The IGI pipeline will have a length of about 800 km, 600 km of which will be built by Desfa in Greece. Poseidon, a 50:50 project joint venture between Edison and Depa, will handle the remaining section of about 200 km, which will run under the sea between Greece and Italy.

"This intergovernmental agreement is a step of fundamental importance for the construction of a project that is highly significant for Italy and Europe as a whole," said Umberto Quadrino, Edison''s chief executive officer. "Three major countries recognize the strategic value of this new natural gas route: the IGI gas pipeline constitutes a key component for the development of an interconnection system that crosses all of Southern Europe. This new infrastructure, coming on the heels of two other Edison projects (the Rovigo regasification terminal and the Galsi pipeline with Algeria), increases the reliability of the European system and effectively promotes the diversification of supply sources.

"For Italy, this natural gas pipeline will be the first importation infrastructure developed independently of the traditional operator and, consequently, will significantly increase competition for the benefit of consumers," added Quadrino.