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Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-05-03
CONTENTS
[01] Greek-Italian natural gas pipeline works to begin soon,
development minister says
[01] Greek-Italian natural gas pipeline works to begin soon,
development minister says
Construction of a Greek-Italian natural gas pipeline is due to begin in
the next few weeks, Development Minister Dimitris Sioufas said on
Tuesday, after a meeting of International Energy Agency (IEA) ministers
in Paris.
In talks with his Italian counterpart Claudio Scajola, it was agreed
that Greece and Italy should sign a bilateral protocol for speeding up
implementation of a Greek-Italian natural gas pipeline, whose operation
will make Greece and Italy a major energy conduit for natural gas from
the Caspian Sea to the larger European markets.
Sioufas and Scajola agreed to create a Greek-Italian committee charged
with drafting the protocol. This decision comes on the heels of a
memorandum of intention signed by Greece's Public Gas Corporation
(DEPA) and Italy's Edison on April 27 for the construction of the
pipeline.
"This is a very significant development," Sioufas said in reference to
the agreement between the two companies. "[This pipeline] in
combination with the Greek-Turkish natural gas pipeline, on which work
will soon commence, creates an energy ring linking Turkey, Greece and
Italy and consequently all of Europe for the transfer of natural gas
from the countries of the Caspian Sea," Sioufas told reporters.
Regarding the Turkish-Greek natural gas pipeline, Sioufas met with his
Turkish counterpart Mehmet Hilmu Guler with whom he discussed the
details of beginning construction on the project as well as expanding
the two countries' cooperation on other energy-related issues.
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