Russia’s gas major, Gazprom has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Edison and DEPA on a new pipeline taking Russian gas to Europe via Greece and Italy through a pipeline under the Black Sea, Pennenergy reported.

Edison and DEPA have already carried out work on the Interconnector Turkey – Greece – Italy (ITGI), but the progress has been proposed in the framework of the Southern Gas Corridor scheme. The ITGI Poseidon pipeline, which is an offshore section across the Ionian Sea, will become part of the project. It is designed to link the Italian and Greek gas transmission systems through an 8bcm/year capacity offshore pipeline.

Russia’s Gazprom, frustrated by the failure of its plans to build a gas pipeline infrastructure to southeast Europe, mainly due to competition from new suppliers such as Azerbaijan and new supplies of LNG, is seeking to retain its market share in the region, which has been traditionally highly dependent on Russian gas flows through Ukraine, Platts reported.

Gazprom CEO, Alexey Miller, said: “The expansion of the intra-European gas transmission capacities is an essential component for enhancing the reliability of gas supply, including from Russia, to consumers all over Europe.”