Pipeline Projects in Southeastern Europe

Countries covered: Europe In the past few months there has been an increased political activity from the European Union (EU) and Russia to the resource-rich states of the Middle East and the Caspian Region. There have also been a number of heated discussions between the partners of the two rival gas projects Nabucco and the South Stream over the competitors’ possibility to implement their plans, which implies that each of the parties will strive to provide maximum support for its project. The article presents the interests of Greece and Bulgaria in the regional energy projects. Both countries are highly dependent on Russian gas supplies for their local market needs, and their participation in the separate projects will provide them with a possibility to derive both financial and economic benefits and diversify their gas sources. Greece participates in two projects within the Southern Gas Corridor, part of which is the ambitious Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, described in May 2010 by the European Union Commissioner for Energy Gunther Oettinger as “an interesting project that would supplement Nabucco."" The second one is the Interconnector Greece-Italy Poseidon (IGI Poseidon). "The pipeline represents a strategic infrastructure which will significantly increase the European energy security as it will be the first link with the Caspian area," said in June 2010 Roberto Poti, Vice President of the Italian company Edison. The article also focuses on Nabucco, which is one of the large-scale projects for transporting natural gas in Europe with a total length of almost 4,000 km. Traycho Traykov, Bulgarian Energy Minister, expressed his confidence that the construction of a gas connection with Turkey would practically launch the Nabucco project. South Stream is the other major gas supplying project in Europe, represented by the article. As planned, the route of South Stream starts in Russia, passes along the bottom of the Black Sea and reaches Bulgaria at Varna, from where the pipeline splits up in two directions: to the northwest to Romania, and to the southwest to Greece. The project is equally important for both Greece and Bulgaria as it will ensure gas supplies for both countries, which presently receive annual supplies from Gazprom - some 4.0 billion cubic metres for Bulgaria and 3.0 billion cubic metres for Greece. The article concludes that Bulgaria and Greece need to carefully weigh up their possibilities and potential benefits from the participation or non-participation in the project pipelines. Taking into consideration the large scales of the projects and the implementation costs accompanying them, neither of the two states can afford a parallel participation in both transnational projects Nabucco and South Stream. On the other hand, the implementation of some smaller regional projects for gas connections seems more pragmatic and will require fewer investment strains.

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Press Release

In the past few months there has been an increased political activity from the European Union (EU) and Russia to the resource-rich states of the Middle East and the Caspian Region. There have also been a number of heated discussions between the partners of the two rival gas projects Nabucco and the South Stream over the competitors’ possibility to implement their plans, which implies that each of the parties will strive to provide maximum support for its project.

SeeNews , a business information provider for Southeast Europe releases the article ‘Pipeline Projects in Southeastern Europe’. The article presents the interests of Greece and Bulgaria in the regional energy projects. Both countries are highly dependent on Russian gas supplies for their local market needs, and their participation in the separate projects will provide them with a possibility to derive both financial and economic benefits and diversify their gas sources.

Greece participates in two projects within the Southern Gas Corridor, part of which is the ambitious Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, described in May 2010 by the European Union Commissioner for Energy Gunther Oettinger as “an interesting project that would supplement Nabucco."

The second one is the Interconnector Greece-Italy Poseidon (IGI Poseidon). "The pipeline represents a strategic infrastructure which will significantly increase the European energy security as it will be the first link with the Caspian area," said in June 2010 Roberto Poti, Vice President of the Italian company Edison.

The article also focuses on Nabucco, which is one of the large-scale projects for transporting natural gas in Europe with a total length of almost 4,000 km. Traycho Traykov, Bulgarian Energy Minister, expressed his confidence that the construction of a gas connection with Turkey would practically launch the Nabucco project.

South Stream is the other major gas supplying project in Europe, represented by the article. As planned, the route of South Stream starts in Russia, passes along the bottom of the Black Sea and reaches Bulgaria at Varna, from where the pipeline splits up in two directions: to the northwest to Romania, and to the southwest to Greece. The project is equally important for both Greece and Bulgaria as it will ensure gas supplies for both countries, which presently receive annual supplies from Gazprom - some 4.0 billion cubic metres for Bulgaria and 3.0 billion cubic metres for Greece.

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