6 July 2017
A plan to transform a depleted natural gas deposit in south Kavala, northern Greece, into an underground gas storage facility has been re-included on an unfinalized list of EU Projects of Common Interest (PCI), while the development of a new floating storage regasification unit (FSRU) in Alexandroupoli, northeastern Greece, to be developed by Gastrade, has been removed from the list.
Latest revisions to the list, still unfinalized, were made during a session on June 30. EU officials are expected to meet in mid-July to finalize the PCI list before it is endorsed by the European Commission.
Over the past few days, the Greek government has intensified efforts to also have the Alexandroupoli FSRU included on the PCI list, which would facilitate EU funding.
The south Kavala underground gas storage facility, now back on the PCI list, had been removed during a revision made two years ago.
Its construction cost has been slashed to about half of an initial estimate of 400 million euros, which makes the project’s sustainability less demanding.
Energean Oil & Gas, the Greek firm exploiting deposits in the wider Kavala region, holds the rights to the depleted south Kavala deposit. The company has made repeated requests for a conversion of its existing south Kavala deposit license into a gas storage license, which is permittted by current law.
All other infrastructure projects of Greek interest have retained their places on the PCI list, energypress sources have informed.
These include the Poseidon gas pipeline, planned to run from Greece to Italy, indicating that this project is a serious contender for a role in a prospective new route to carry Russian gas to Europe (Turkish Stream) as well as another major project to bring gas to Europe from the eastern Mediterranean (East Med).
The Euro Asia Interconnector, a submarine cable project to link the Greek, Cypriot and Israeli electricity networks, as well as East Med, a prospective gas pipeline to transmit gas from Cyprus’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) to mainland Greece via Crete, have also retained their places on the PCI list.
So, too, has the IGB, the Greek-Bulgarian Interconnector, for which a final investment decision is expected imminently.
Tesla, a prospective natural gas pipeline to offer a link from Greece to Austria, is also on the updated PCI list.
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