Since 2003 the development of the Southern Corridor – a virtual transit route able to connect Caspian resources to the European markets, bypassing Russian territory – is the most promising approach adopted by the EU to achieve its energy diversification objectives.
From the Italian point of view, the establishment of the corridor is an important opportunity to ensure access to energy resources of a region in the potential expansion, strengthening national energy security and the country’s role as a strategic hub for European gas.
IGI-Poseidon is a project driven by the Franco-Italian energy company Edison and the Greek company Depa national and Desfa.15 The project, with a total length of 800 kilometers and a capacity of 9.8 Bcm per year, it should be divided into two sections : a land of 600 kilometers that should cross the greek territory and a submarine of 207 kilometers – the Poseidon gas pipeline – which will run on the Ionian Sea bed to get on the Italian territory near Otranto. According to allegations made by the consortium, the pipeline capacity could be doubled – up to achieve 12/16 Bcm – if they were available additional supplies from the Caspian Sea. According to official estimates, the initial cost for the project would be around between 1.5 and two billion dollars.
And ‘so it began the construction of the TAP (Trans-Adriatic Pipeline) that the turkish-Greek border will pass through Albania and then bring the gas in Italy. But the so-called “southern corridor” could expand further due to another pipeline, called Poseidon. Starting from the Greek coast, further south than the Tap, the pipeline is expected to plunge in the Ionian Sea (up to almost 1,400 meters deep) and then re-emerge on the Italian coast near Otranto.
IGI-Poseidon and Tap are two very similar projects, which aim to bring between 8 and 10 Bcm initially available from Shah Deniz II on greek market, albanese17 and Italian, through what has been dubbed the southern route (the route Southern) South Corridor, of strategic interest for Italy. Both projects are flexible, relatively inexpensive, and achievable in a short time, allowing the Azerbaijani gas to be transported to Europe once it is marketable – presumably from the end of 2018.

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