Turkey, Greece, Italy signed a memorandum of understanding for natural gas pipeline

Turkey, Italy and Greece on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a natural gas pipeline that will carry natural gas from the Caspian region to Europe.

Under a statement issued by Turkey’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, Greece’s Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change and Italy’s Ministry of Economic Development after the signing ceremony, the three parties stressed their common goal to enhance energy security through diversification of energy sources and routes based on the principles of market economy.

The three parties have worked together since 2002 to develop the Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy (ITGI) Project and to contribute to the creation of the Southern Gas Corridor which will link the European Union countries Greece and Italy via Turkey to Caspian and Middle Eastern natural gas resources, said the statement.
The natural gas pipeline, which is considered one of EU’s most crucial projects, will be 804 km long and will go into service in 2015.

The ITGI pipeline is designed to begin from Azerbaijan and end in Italy. Once completed, the pipeline will carry around 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Greece and Italy per year.