Greece and Turkey open pipeline

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Greece and Turkey Open Gas Pipeline
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By ANTHEE CARASSAVA
Published: November 19, 2007
ATHENS, Nov. 18 — Greece and Turkey opened a $300 million pipeline on Sunday, creating an energy corridor that connects the rich natural gas fields in the Caspian Sea region to Europe, bypassing Russia and the volatile Middle East.

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Simela Pantzartzi/European Pressphoto Agency
Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis of Greece, center, on the right, shook hands Sunday with Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his Turkish counterpart, at the Evros River to inaugurate a gas pipeline.
The 178-mile pipeline also solidifies improved ties between Greece and Turkey, linking the longtime Aegean rivals through a project that will give Caspian gas its first direct Western outlet and help ease Russia’s energy dominance as oil and gas prices soar.

“This project will bring significant benefits both for Greece and Turkey,” said Kostas Karamanlis, the Greek prime minister, who inaugurated the project with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It shows “we can live in harmony and both gain from it,” Mr. Karamanlis said, shaking hands with Mr. Erdogan in a symbolic meeting on a bridge over the Evros River, which divides the countries.

The pipeline, which will use natural gas pumped into Turkey from the Shah Deniz field in Azerbaijan, will initially carry 250 million cubic meters of gas a year to Komotini, in northeastern Greece, from Karacabey, in western Turkey. Its capacity is expected to triple by 2012, when Poseidon, a 132-mile undersea Greece-Italy pipeline begins operation, forming the Southern Europe Gas Ring project.

“The project is extremely significant — and fundamentally political,” said Julian Lee, a senior analyst with the Center for Global Energy Studies, a London-based research group. “It offers diversified supplies of energy to Europe without going through Russia — an objective encouraged by the United States.”

Signaling Washington’s support, Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman attended the inauguration ceremony near the Greek-Turkish border on Sunday. President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan also attended.

Russia, the world’s biggest gas and oil producer, accounts for more than 25 percent of European Union gas imports, and Western officials have been scrambling for years to forge a viable energy strategy that could ease Russia’s hold on European energy supplies.

Greece and Turkey, meanwhile, have been trying to promote themselves as emerging energy hubs and regional power brokers with a string of energy deals.

“This pipeline will boost prosperity in the region,” Mr. Erdogan said. “The silk route will also become an energy route linking East and West through Turkey.”

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