Turkey-Greece gas pipeline tender postponed to November

The bidding deadline of the project, also known as the Southern Europe Gas Ring Project, was postponed to Nov. 1 from the earlier announced date of Sept. 30, 2004, said the report.

Greece and Turkey in 2003 agreed to build a 300-million-US-dollar gas pipeline between them to carry up to 11 billion cubic meters (bcm) gas a year, of which three bcm for Greece itself and the rest for re-export to Europe.

Turkey’s State pipeline company BOTAS is in charge of the tenderwork on the Turkish side.

Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Hilmi Guler has said that the maximum volume of gas Turkey will pump to Greece fromIran will be 11 bcm.

The pipe will be 178 miles (285 km) long with a diameter of 36 inches (91 cm), and gas transmission is scheduled to start in 2006 with an initial 750 million cubic meters, he added.

Turkey hopes to extend the pipeline to Italy and become an energy hub for southeastern Europe. Enditem