Turkey's Petroleum Pipeline Corporation (BOTAS), Italy's EDISON and Greece's DEPA signed Thursday a memorandum of understanding for building the Turkey-Greece-Italy Natural Gas Pipeline that will carry natural gas from the Caspian region to Europe.

Turkish Minister of Energy & Natural Resources Taner Yildiz, Director General of BOTAS Fazil Senel, Vice-President Roberto Poti of Italian Electric and Natural Gas Company EDISON and President of the Executive Board of Greek State Natural Gas Company DEPA Herry Sachinis attended the press conference held after the signature ceremony at capital Ankara's Rixos Grand Hotel.

Speaking at the conference, Turkish Minister Yildiz said "The Interconnector Turkey-Greece-Italy (ITGI) Project" was a primary project for the EU.

Yildiz noted that ITGI was the second step of the South Europe Natural Gas Project, after the first phase initiated with the opening of Turkey-Greece Natural Gas Pipeline 2.5 years ago.

Yildiz also said nearly 11.6 billion cubicmeters of natural gas would be provided from the resources located at Turkey's east and would be carried to Europe via Turkey thanks to the ITGI project.

"This project is also of great importance for expressing Turkey's strategic significance in strengthening the security of Europe's and the world's energy supply," he said.

Replying to questions as well, Minister Yildiz said the project would be completed phase by phase until the year 2017.

He said three participant companies would continue their negotiations on the division of the financial load of the project.

Upon a question on whether it would be an option for Turkey to export the excessive gas in ITGI project, Yildiz said ITGI, together with Nabucco, would be the part of an
important solution for EU's supply security.

Yildiz said ITGI and Nabucco were no rival projects, adding they had the potential to work together and support each other.

ITGI Project is considered to be one of the EU's most crucial projects.

The natural gas pipeline will be 804 kilometers long and will go into service in 2015.

ITGI pipeline begins in Azerbaijan and ends in Italy. Once completed, the pipeline will carry around 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas to Greece and Italy per year.

Bulgaria was the last country that joined the ITGI Project. Experts say that Serbia and Romania may join the project either directly or indirectly.


AA