DEPA, the Public Gas Corporation, and main power utility PPC plan to establish at least one gas supply company to cover the retail markets of four major Greek islands as well as port-city Patras in western Greece, according to energypress sources. The two corporations had recently signed a Memorandum of Cooperation.

PPC plans to convert petrol-based facilities into gas units before local gas networks are developed in these new markets to initially serve bigger energy consumers such as hotels, hospitals, small factories and bakeries. Households will be covered at a latter stage.

The new DEPA and PPC venture will initially target the four islands, Crete, Rhodes, Lesvos and Samos, all possessing considerable energy needs.

The development of an LNG terminal in Patras, unrelated to the prospective DEPA-PPC venture, has been on the cards for quite some time now.

Despite the signing of the memorandum, the prospective partnership between DEPA and PPC is still at an embryonic stage. A business plan detailing both the potential and challenges of the venture has yet to be prepared.

Once the business plan is ready, private-sector companies will be invited to consider investing in the venture, or ventures, as additional partners. It is believed that construction companies may be interested for development of infrastructure and networks.

DEPA and PPC have stressed their ventures will comply with EU and national competition laws.

The Greek State holds majority stakes in DEPA and PPC, these being 65 percent and 51 percent, respectively.