Greece's Energy Minister: Hydrocarbons Exploitation Will Benefit Neighbouring Countries

The partnerships between Greece-Cyprus-Israel and Egypt are not against anyone, but reach out to all the countries of the region to participate, Energy Minister Yiannis Maniatis said on Tuesday at a conference of the Institute of Energy of South East Europe.

"They mark Greece's choice to become a pole of stability and development in the region. The exploitation of hydrocarbons should be a good example of development, as was the case in Great Britain and Norway, and the leaders of the neighbouring countries are wise enough to understand that this will benefit their people," Maniatis underlined. The minister also stressed that Greece is endowed with resources that can reduce its energy dependence.Maniatis announced that the HRADF will proceed with a tender for the creation of gas storage in the deposit of South Kavala.

The storage, the minister said, will be one of three possible sources of supply of the Greek-Baltic vertical pipeline, which according to estimates of the Greek side, can be operational as of 2017, as it does not require major investments, but only the linking of the existing networks of the countries in the region. The other two sources are the TAP pipeline and the floating LNG plants planned in Northern Greece.