MINA: Athens Presentation Shows Competing Gas Pipelines

Greek Environment and Energy Minister Vasilis Maniatis presented the grand plan Greece has prepared for the supply of South Eastern Europe, and even central Europe, with natural gas.

According to Maniatis comments at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in D.C., Greece wants to see a gas pipeline going through her territory and along the proposed route of the Russian backed South Stream pipeline, as well as the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) that will connect Greece to Albania and Italy.

Maniatis didn't mention Macedonia in his lecture, but the map he presented to illustrate this ambitious plan, clearly shows a line connecting the TAP pipeline with Macedonia.

The key question, Maniatis conceded before the US audience, is where is all this natural gas going to come from? Part of the answer lies in Azeri gas, that should be transported through Gruzia and Turkey, via the proposed Trans - Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP). The rest should come through ship transported liquefied natural gas, that would be unloaded and regasified in Greece. Maniatis proposed that one such floating storage and regasification plant is placed close to the Greek port of Kavala, in the north of the country, on the shore of the Aegean.
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