Kavala gas storage plan to be revived
The government is seeking to ensure the viability of an underground natural gas storage project in Kavala, northern Greece, so a tender can be launched once obstacles are cleared.
Kathimerini understands that Athens will seek to secure the European Commission’s approval of state aid so the project is partly financed by national or EU funds, arguing that the facility will be used for “strategic” gas reserves.
Competent sources estimate that the Commission will find it hard to deny the petition amid the current energy crisis, given that Greece does not have sufficient natural gas storage capabilities and keeps mandatory strategic reserves for the winter in Italy.
Responding to criticism from investors that he is responsible for freezing the project, the president of the Regulatory Authority for Energy, Athanasios Dagoumas, concedes that the Kavala unit would have been particularly useful in the current crisis. However, he adds, the project has already been stagnant for years, the floating storage unit of Revithousa partly makes up for the absence of a domestic repository and the project is also expensive. “We have to decide whether consumers or the state will bear the cost,” he says.
kathimerini
