The governments of Greece, Israel and Cyprus have signed in Athens on Thursday an agreement to build an EastMed gas pipeline, Reuters reports.
The agreement was concluded at the Zappeion Hall by Greece`s Environment and Energy Minister Costis Hadzidakis, Cyprus’ Energy Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis and their Israeli counterpart Yuval Steiniz, in the presence of Greece`s and Israel`s Prime Ministers Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Benjamin Netanyahu, and Cyprus’ President Nicos Anastasiades.
At the end of 2015, the European Union included the EastMed subsea gas pipeline in the list of Projects of Common Interest (PCI), giving it 2 million euros for a feasibility study. It is expected that at the latest in 2022 a decision will be made in Brussels on whether the EU will take on half the total cost of the project.
The Greek Public Gas Corporation DEPA and Italian energy firm Edison are ready to take the other half of the costs for the construction of the pipeline through their joint venture IGI Poseidon.
EastMed gas pipeline will play an important role in delivering gas to Italy and other southern European countries.
EastMed, which will stretch almost 1,900 kilometres from Israeli and Cypriot gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean to Italy via Greece, will be the longest underwater gas pipeline in the world and is scheduled to be commissioned by 2025-2016.
