EastMed gas pipeline can be ready in 2025

Nicosia, March 12 - Neftegaz.RU. The ambitious €6 billion EastMed undersea pipeline could be built and ready within the next 5 years, Israeli Energy Yuval Steinitz told the Cyprus news agency in an interview.

The EastMed pipeline will enable Israel and Cyprus to export natural gas directly to Greece and Italy, and from Greece and Italy to the Balkans and Central Europe
An MoU was signed in Tel Aviv in 2017 between 4 countries together with the EU Energy Commissioner.

Y.Steinitz said:

• In Israel, we have a huge surplus of gas
• We have enough to justify not one EastMed pipeline, but I think together with Cyprus, we can justify even 2 or 3 such pipelines
• Finally, after many years of missed opportunities, Israel, Cyprus, and Greece decided to combine forces together to help each other’s economic development

Greek-Italian gas joint venture IGI Poseidon said on March 9, that it had signed an agreement with the Israel Natural Gas Lines to cooperate on building facilities to connect Israel to the EastMed gas pipeline in the eastern Mediterranean.

IGI Poseidon, a joint venture between Greece’s state-owned gas utility DEPA and Italy’s Edison, said the agreement with the Israeli company, which updates a 2019 MoU, aims to connect the Eastmed project to the Israeli transmission system and facilitate gas flows from the eastern Mediterranean to Italy and Europe, via Cyprus.

State-owned Israel Natural Gas Lines said the connection will allow gas to flow from all the Israeli gas fields.
Greece, Cyprus, and Israel aim to reach a final investment decision on the EastMed project by 2022 and have the €6 billion pipeline completed by 2025