Tender ‘imminent’ for south Kavala gas storage facility

A tender for the development of a natural gas storage facility in northern Greece’s south Kavala region will soon be announced by TAIPED, the State Privatization Fund, following a three-year delay to the plan, Environment, Energy & Climate Change Minister Yiannis Maniatis told a conference in Athens today.

According to Maniatis, who delivered a speech on the opening day of “Energy & Development”, a two-day conference organized by IENE, the Institute of Energy for South-East Europe, the gas storage facility promises to contribute to Greece’s energy supply security, and, furthermore, will serve as one of three supply sources for a prospective pipeline to run from Greece to the Baltic states.

Greek officials believe the pipeline project could begin operating in 2017 as its investment requirements will primarily involve the interconnection of existing infrastructure projects in the region. The other two gas supply sources are TAP, the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, and floating LNG natural gas units being planned for northern Greece.

Maniatis told the conference that the TAP, Greece-Baltic region and East Med pipeline projects being planned to transmit natural gas from the eastern Mediterranean to Europe, via Crete and mainland Greece, constitute part of the government’s strategy to establish Greece as a regional gas hub.