Cyprus, Greece and Israel to Sign Pipeline Deal in Early January - HAARETZ

Dec 23, 2019 8:11 PM

The leaders of Cyprus, Greece and Israel plan to sign an agreement January 2 for building an undersea pipeline to bring Israeli and Cypriot natural gas to the European market, the Greek prime minister’s office announced Sunday.

The agreement, which will be signed in Athens by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Cypriot President Nikos Anastasiades and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will be largely symbolic – aimed at helping Cyprus and Greece to confront Turkey over maritime rights.

The announcement of the pipeline agreement comes on the heels of an agreement signed last week between Turkey and Libya delineating exclusive economic zones in the Mediterranean Sea that awards Turkey the areas where the projected pipeline is slated to run.

The agreement has elicited protests from eastern Mediterranean countries with gas interests, including Egypt. On Monday, Netanyahu said in a letter to the Greek and Cypriot leaders that the “the gas agreement between Turkey and Libya is not legal – we need to respond and sign the gas pipeline agreement.”

Italy opposes Poseidon gas pipeline landfall - REUTERS

MAY 7, 2019 / 7:37 PM

ROME, May 7 (Reuters) - Italy will not allow the Poseidon gas pipeline being developed by Italy’s Edison and Greece’s DEPA to make landfall as planned in southern Italy, the Prime Minister said on Tuesday.

The Poseidon pipeline, which has permits to run from Greece to the southern town of Otranto, is the final section of the EastMed pipeline that aims to bring gas reserves from the east Mediterranean to Italy.

TEKMOR Note: The Poseidon pipeline was planned as the last leg of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) to transport gas from Azerbaijan via TANAP & TAP long before the idea of East Med Pipeline came into being!

“The government is certainly not interested at present in building the final tract of Poseidon as originally planned,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said at an event near Rome.

Two years ago DEPA and Edison signed a cooperation agreement with Russia’s Gazprom to set up joint efforts to create a southern route for gas into Europe.

The United States has been pressuring EU member states to find alternative natural gas supply sources not involving Russia.

Italy says mulling late-in-the game changes for massive TAP natural gas project - XINHUA NEWS

2018 JUNE 08, 05:33:26
Eric J. Lyman

ROME, June 7 (Xinhua) -- The future of the ambitious Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which aims to give western Europe access to natural gas from Azerbaijan's massive Shah Deniz fields, may be in doubt after leading officials in the new Italian government said the project made no sense for Italy.

Sergio Costa, who was installed as Italian environment minister under Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte less than a week ago, promised to launch a study into whether Italy will benefit from continuing to participate in the so-called TAP project. And Minister of the South Barbara Lezzi expressed worry about environmental risks associated with TAP.

The 4.5-billion-euro (5.4-billion-U.S. dollar) TAP project spans 880 kilometers (550 miles) from the border between Turkey and Greece, across Greece into Albania, under the Adriatic Sea, and into San Foca in the southern Italian region of Apulia. From there, it will link with existing gas infrastructure to reach multiple western European markets.