ATHENS: The Greek-Italian gas pipeline project, dubbed Poseidon, is returning to the forefront despite having lost to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) in the battle for the transmission of Azeri gas.
The project by the Greece’s Public Gas Corporation (DEPA) and Italy’s Edison staged a comeback on Wednesday in Milan as Russian company Gazprom’s chief Alexei Miller signed a memorandum of understanding with DEPA chief executive Thodoros Kitsakos and Edison CEO Marc Benayoun on “the transmission of Russian natural gas from Russia – through the Black Sea and third countries – to Greece and then to Italy.”
The joint statement by the three companies adds that they intend to make the most of the work already done by DEPA and Edison in the context of the Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy (ITGI) Poseidon project.
The signing of the memorandum was the outcome of months of contacts between the three parties that became more official with Miller’s visit to Milan in September. The new project cuts the capacity of the Greek-Italian pipeline to below 20 billion cubic meters of gas per annum, assuming the characteristics of a pipeline that would be complementary to TAP, rather than a rival that would ensure security of supply for Southern European states.
