Azernews.Az

BAKU – The Turkey-Greece-Italy (ITGI) gas pipeline seeking to transport Caspian gas to Europe may become the first project to open the Southern Gas Corridor of pipelines, Greek company DEPA’s CEO Harry Sachinis has said.

A pipeline from Turkey to Greece under the project is already in place.

"We are currently working hard with our partners in Bulgaria to develop a gas line from Greece to Bulgaria," Sachinis told the Caspian Energy Dialogue 2011 conference in Baku Friday. "By 2017 we will be able to complete the construction of an interconnector from Greece to Italy."

Sachinis said the timeframe of the ITGI project will be coordinated with the second stage of developing Azerbaijan’s Shahdaniz gas condensate field in the Caspian Sea.

Azerbaijan could supply 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year to European markets, he said. About 1 billion cubic meters of the volume will be supplied for consumption in Greece, while the rest will be delivered to Bulgaria, Romania and other neighboring countries.

Sachinis said that in the future, gas supply is also expected from Turkmenistan, Iraq and other Azerbaijani fields.

"If there are additional volumes of gas and contracts in place in the future, Nabucco and other gas pipelines may be built during the second phase of implementing the Southern Corridor," Sachinis said.

The Southern Corridor is a priority EU energy project diversifying supply routes and sources and increasing European energy security. Besides ITGI, it includes the Nabucco gas pipeline, Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and White Stream.