DEPA, the Public Gas Corporation, plans to expand Greece’s natural gas network so that it may reach an additional eleven provincial cities, and also supply a futher six with tank trucks.

Energy minister Panos Skourletis presented two separate lists for the aforementioned categories during an all-encompassing news conference yesterday.

Alexandroupoli, Komotini, Xanthi, Kavala, Serres, Drama, Kilkis, and Katerini, all in Greece’s north, as well as Lamia, Thiva, and Halkida, are the eleven provincial cities to which DEPA plans to expand its natural gas network.

The second list, concerning supply with tank trucks, is comprised of Patras, Amfissa, Livadia, Karpenisi, Veria, and Orestiada.

Although Greece’s natural gas pipeline network has existed for years, it has simply passed by cities and “gestured hello” Skourletis noted yesterday, criticizing his predecessors at the energy ministry for not having branched out the pipeline to other areas.

The natural gas network’s expansion is included on DEPA’s ten-year investment plan, announced just days ago by the corporation’s CEO Theodoros Kitsakos at an energy conference.

The network’s expansion plan will entail constructing an additional 850 kilometers of pipeline infrastructure, in addition to the existing 460-kilometer network, for a total of 1,310 kilometers, according to DEPA’s ten-year plan.

The initiative promises to connect 140,000 households, 19,000 businesses, and 350 large-scale industrial enterprises to the country’s gas network, while new jobs will also be created, DEPA noted.

According to Kitsakos, Greece’s annual natural gas consumption is forecast to increase to eight billion cubic meters over the next fifteen years, or 0.6 billion cubic meters per year. At present, the consumption level stands at 3 billion cubic meters.