Regional natural gas infrastructure plans and the addition of Orestiada, located at Greece’s northeastern tip, to the natural gas network for household consumption – through a CNG solution and not a connecting pipeline – dominated a meeting held yesterday by regional authority Giorgos Pavlidis and Theodoros Kitsakos, chief executive at DEPA, the Public Gas Corporation.

Orestiada’s addition to the natural gas network for household consumption would follow in the footsteps of five other major provincial cities in the wider region now planning to develop gas infrastructure – Drama, Kavala, Xanthi, Komotini, and Alexandroupoli.

The plan for Orestiada’s addition to the network and matters concerning the area’s natural environment that need to be overcome were discussed during yesterday’s session.

The Eastern Macedonia and Thrace provincial administration is prepared to cover its part of the cost for the plan’s development, Pavlidis, the regional head, noted, while adding that a first tender would soon be announced.

Speaking at a recent conference focused on natural gas and economic growth, Pavlidis had stated it was contradictory and unfair to deprive the Eastern Macedonia and Thrace region of a lower-cost energy source and not have developed low-pressure networks for household consumption at a time when talk is rife, at a political level, on establishing Greece as an energy hub in the wider Balkan region.

The Eastern Macedonia and Thrace provincial administration, in collaboration with DEPA, is planning to launch the project’s development after having secured private-sector financing worth 21.6 million euros for the plan’s first stage.