Greek energy company IGI Poseidon signed a cooperation agreement with U.S. Energy Company Noble for feasibility work and viability assessment for a pipeline in the east Mediterranean, the company announced late on Thursday.
The agreement contains feasibility works or [technically] Preliminary Front End Engineering Design, Pre-FEED activities for a pipeline directly between the east Mediterranean region and Greece, according to the press release.
IGI Poseidon proclaimed that the Pre-FEED studies are currently being finalized by a consortium of major engineering companies - IntecSea and C&M Engineering, and by the global information company IHS. The studies indicate that the project is technically feasible, well within the most advanced technology available and represents an economically viable export option.
The East Mediterranean region has several natural gas fields which are not commercialized yet via pipelines or LNG facilities, such as the Leviathan field with 621 billion cubic meters (bcm) in capacity, the Tamar field with 283 bcm in offshore Israel and the relatively small Aphrodite field with 127 bcm capacity in offshore Greek Cypriot administration. Moreover, Italian energy company Eni announced a new discovery in offshore Egypt with 850 bcm capacity.
Turkey and Israel have been conducting high level talks to normalize bilateral relations while experts concur that the realization of a natural gas pipeline from Israel to Turkey is a key motivator.
IGI Poseidon announced that the Eastern Mediterranean (EastMed) Pipeline Project is a European Project of Common Interest in which the ongoing development activities are supported by the European Union through the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) co-financing program.
According to the press release, a possible EastMed pipeline project for an offshore/onshore pipeline would be approximately 1,900 km long, directly connecting East Mediterranean resources to Greece via Cyprus and Crete and the potential project would be designed to transport up to 16 bcm per year from the offshore gas reserves in the Levantine Basin (Cyprus and Israel) as well as from the gas reserves in Greece.
IGI Poseidon S.A. is a company incorporated in Athens and equally owned by DEPA S.A. and Edison. The company is trying to develop three major gas pipeline projects: the Poseidon Pipeline, the IGB Pipeline and the EastMed Pipeline.
(Anadolu Agency)
