Gas grid operator DESFA is set to begin its development of a gas pipeline in northern Greece’s west Macedonia region next month, an official ceremony for the start of work slated for end of February or early March, energypress sources have informed.

According to the operator’s ten-year development plan covering 2022 to 2031, the gas pipeline, a project budgeted at 147 million euros, is scheduled to be completed in autumn, 2026.

The gas pipeline project’s financing will be covered by DESFA capital as well as a syndicated 505 million-euro bond loan agreement reached by the operator with the country’s four main banks for its ten-year development plan from 2021 to 2030.

The pipeline will cover a total distance of 147 kilometers, running from Trikala in the Imathia region to Ptolemaida. It will branch off at four points for distribution to the region’s urban centers, namely Edessa, Skydra, Naoussa, Veria, Florina Amynteo, Ptolemaida and Kozani, and will be equipped for a prospective extension to the Kastoria area.

This pipeline, it is worth noting, will be totally compatible to carry and transport hydrogen, making it Greece’s first and one of Europe’s few pipelines fully supporting transportation of renewable gases.

It will make up part of the European Hydrogen Backbone (EHB), a plan shaped by European operators and companies for the development of a European pipeline network hosting hydrogen. Their objective is to have developed a network covering a total distance of 40,000 kilometers by 2040.