Trans Adriatic Pipeline will bring to Greece 1.5 billion euro in foreign direct investment

12 June 2013 / 14:06:00 GRReporter

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Maria S. Topalova

If the southern route to transport Azeri gas is preferred to the northern, it will bring to Greece the largest foreign direct investment in its history. Its value will be 1.5 billion euro, it will immediately open 2,000 new jobs and another 10,000 later as personally announced by Kdzhet Tankland, CEO of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline project, at the fourth annual conference "Oil and Gas in the Mediterranean Sea."
"The technical study was performed by world leaders in the construction of gas pipelines, there is a commercial and structural agreement with the Shah Deniz consortium, which extracts and condenses the Azeri gas, we have received political support through the tripartite agreement between Greece, Italy and Albania, we offer excellent investment opportunities," Kdzhet Tankland stresses the advantages of the project managed by him. Its total cost is estimated at between 40 and 50 billion euro. The final decision on whether to build the southern Trans Adriatic Pipeline which will pass through Greece or the Nabucco West route will be taken at the end of June.

In recent months, Greece has held a diplomatic marathon in support of the south pipeline, stating that it will significantly contribute towards the recovery of sustainable economic growth. "The situation would have been even better if the tender for the privatization of the state-owned gas company DEPA had been successfully completed. The tender will be held again in the near future and it will involve many candidates this time. There were many candidates in early 2011 who withdrew because of the danger of Grexit. We have avoided chaotic bankruptcy with hard work," admits Panagiotis Michalos, general secretary in charge of international economic relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Two days ago, to the surprise of the Greek government, Gazprom withdrew its offer for the purchase of DEPA, which was considered as a favourite, thus spoiling the tender for the privatization of the company.
Panagiotis Michalos does not hide Greece’s ambitions to not stop with its crucial role in the transport of Caspian gas but to also emerge as the third energy source for the European Union along with Cyprus and Israel. In recent months, studies have detected the presence of gas reserves in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea which, according to the diplomat, may be equivalent to those in Russia and Azerbaijan.
Antonis Livanios, CEO of the German Steam Energy, spoke too about large shifts in the global energy map. According to him, the failure of the privatization of the gas company DEPA is due to a clash of geopolitical interests and the fact that the only remaining candidate is a company from Azerbaijan is further tilting the balances in favour of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline project. Due to the serious clash of geopolitical interests, former Deputy Energy Minister Yiannis Maniatis calls for full transparency when choosing among the Trans Adriatic Pipeline and Nabucco West projects.

Another advantage of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline is the already signed agreement with the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz consortium as stated by Roland Kobia, Ambassador of the European Union in Azerbaijan. Shah Deniz is a known natural gas field in the Caspian Sea but, according to Ambassador Kobia, few people know that the place is a big gas condensation centre as well. The diplomat points out that there are natural gas fields in neighbouring Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan and that the three former Soviet republics together hold 15% of the world reserves of natural gas. "Europe needs more natural gas and Azerbaijan has plenty of natural gas, which it wants to export," concluded the diploma.
According to John Baldwin, chief political adviser to global giant British Petroleum, both the Trans Adriatic Pipeline and Nabucco West route will develop in the long run. However, investors will choose one of the two at present. If this is the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, the value of the entire project will be between 40 and 50 billion euro.