NEWS UPDATE: 

Greek energy ministry officials have made a successful last-ditch effort ahead of this Sunday’s elections that boosts the country’s chances of keeping on the EU’s PCI list an underground gas storage facility in the offshore South Kavala region, planned through the development of a depleted natural gas field, energypress sources have informed.

An FSRU in Alexandroupoli, northeastern Greece, will also be on the PCI list, enabling favorable funding terms, the sources added.

Prior to this latest development, energy ministry officials assured that problems concerning the South Kavala project’s place on the PCI list would be overcome, while admitting the project had been negatively appraised by Brussels.

Earlier today, energypress reported: 

A project entailing the development of a depleted natural gas field in northern Greece’s offshore South Kavala region as an underground gas storage facility appears likely to be removed from the European Union’s PCI list, a status enabling favorable funding.

Delays and the country’s early elections appear to have taken their toll and are believed to be key reasons behind the project’s likely removal from the PCI list.

The underground gas storage facility has been negatively reviewed by EU authorities amid procedures leading to the determination of a new and revised PCI catalogue for 2020-2021, energypress sources have informed.

Not all hope has been lost. Final decisions by EU authorities will be reached in October, which gives Greek officials some time to present their case in favor of the project’s PCI-list inclusion.

The asset’s ownership, along with the responsibility for its utilization, have been transferred to the privatization fund TAIPED, which has significantly delayed related initiatives as it obviously does not consider the project to be a top-priority issue.

The project’s budget is estimated at between 300 and 400 million euros, while its storage capacity could end up being anywhere between 360 and 720 million cubic meters, as much as 10 percent of the country’s annual natural gas consumption.

France’s Engie, as well as Terna and Energean, have formed a consortium to bid for the project whenever a tender is staged.