Kavala gas storage unit back on PCI list, FSRU in north ejected - ENERGY PRESS

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.

Greek storage stuck in no-man's-land - NATURAL GAS EUROPE

Source: Energean Oil & Gas

July 25th, 2016, Kama Mustafayeva

Greece's environment and energy minister Panos Skourletis expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of progress in turning a gas field into an underground natural gas storage (UGS) during a recent speech in parliament. He criticised the state privatization fund Taiped for “not having shown any interest in moving ahead all these years” with plans to convert a gas field in the Gulf of Kavala into an UGS, Energypress reports.

He said that UGS is “a highly significant issue throughout Europe and such facilities are greatly sought after,” but although ownership of the field was transferred to Taiped in 2011, nothing has been done since.

According to a source, establishing UGS was to have been part of the plan to enhance Greek energy security and foster a southeast European trading hub; other elements included the Trans Adriatic pipeline; Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria and its extension into Romania and boosting the import capacity of the LNG terminal in Revithoussa, near Athens.