Filenews 24 June 2023
By the end of the year, the market test for the EastMed pipeline, which is planned to transport natural gas from Eastern Mediterranean fields to Italy and Central Europe via Greece, will begin, executives of the IGI POSEIDON consortium to which the project belongs told ANA-MPA.
The pipeline, 2 000 km long, of which more than 1 400 km is undersea and has a final transport capacity of EUR 21 billion. Cubic meters of gas per year have been under discussion since the beginning of the last decade and since 2013 they have been included in the EU's list of Projects of Common Interest (PCI) and information indicates that it will be on the new, updated list to be announced in the autumn.
While in previous years there were concerns about cost (over €6 billion), technical challenges (including a maximum sea depth of 3,000 meters), as well as geopolitical parameters, now the Russian invasion of Ukraine that led the EU to the decision to wean itself off Russian gas, has put the project on a new trajectory.
Former Energy Minister Yiannis Maniatis noted characteristically last week speaking at an energy conference, referring to the cost of €6 billion. "The EU in one year threw away 600 billion euros to support households and businesses, money that went to the companies and countries that supply us with gas." He described EastMed as a project of cooperation and stability in the Eastern Mediterranean, cooperation that is open to all sides as long as they accept the international law of the sea.
In any case, as executives of the IGI POSEIDON Joint Venture (owned equally 50-50% by DEPA International Projects and Italian Edison) point out to ANA-MPA, with the market test that will investigate the interest of the users of the pipeline for the supply of natural gas through it, the moment of truth for the project is approaching as the existence of available quantities of natural gas from the deposits discovered in the area and the interest in transporting them through the pipeline in Europe. It is worth noting that the pipeline is designed with specifications that allow the transport of green hydrogen, in the production of which the Middle East region has a competitive advantage.
On 2 January 2020, the governments of Greece, Cyprus and Israel signed an Intergovernmental Agreement to support the construction of the project, in which the Italian government did not participate. However, last month the Italian Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee adopted a resolution calling on the Italian government to consult with the countries involved on the development of the project, in light of the diversification of energy supply sources.
According to the Environmental and Social Impact Study of the pipeline, the benefits of the project include:
-Enhancing competition in the energy market by providing access to additional new sources of supply not currently reaching anywhere in the European Union and to new gas entry points in Cyprus, Greece and Italy.
-Enhancing security of supply in the EU by facilitating diversification of energy sources and routes by providing solutions for supply disruptions and emergency scenarios.
-Expansion of the Southern Gas Corridor by developing natural gas resources within the EU and near border sources.
-Ensuring the supply of natural gas to areas of Greece that do not have access to the National Grid, such as Crete, part of the Peloponnese and Western Greece, putting an end to their energy isolation in relation to the European System, through direct interconnection.
-Support the transition phase from coal (or oil) to renewables using sources, such as natural gas, that are less polluting but still able to guarantee that electricity supply requirements are met by meeting maximum energy production needs.
-Promoting environmental sustainability in line with the carbon emission reduction targets to be achieved as set out under the Paris Agreement
-Create a new energy corridor to support and encourage the transition of the South East Europe and Eastern Mediterranean region towards a sustainable and efficient energy transmission network, while also supporting the development of hydrogen production plants.
