Greece-Turkey natgas pipeline to be inaugurated November 18

[Ellinas]

The Greece-Turkey natural gas pipeline will be inaugurated next Sunday by prime minister Costas Karamanlis and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and preparations for the inauguration were discussed during a meeting between Karamanlis and development minister Christos Folias.

Following the ceremony at the Greek-Turkish frontier, natural gass will begin flowing via the pipeline.

The minister also briefed Karamanlis on the results of his visit to Moscow, from where he returned on Saturday.

Asked whether there was a complication regarding the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, Folias replied in the negative.

"Quite the opposite, in fact. There was an exceptional climate in my meetings with my counterparts in Moscow, and everything is progressing well," Folias said.

The development minister noted that this had been the first time he had met with his counterparts since his assumption of the ministry, adding that, at the meeting, everyone's determination for the speediest implementation of the plans was reaffirmed.

Folias said that he further briefed the prime minister on a series of matters falling under his ministry and, asked what instructions Karamanlis had given him, he replied "intensification of the efforts in order to have the best possible results".

The Greece-Turkey natgas pipeline will have a transport capacity of 11.5 cubic metres of natural gas annually, and the project will eventually extend to Italy via the construction of a Greece-Italy natgas pipeline, officially known as the "Interconnector Greece-Italy (IGI)", which is slated for completion in 2011 and comrpises a supplement to the Greek-turkish pipeline, transporting an additional 8 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year.

ANA