Officials outline benefits of TAP pipeline as regional authority gives project the green light

Addressing an event at the International Relations Institute held in the presence of Norwegian Ambassador to Athens Sjur Larsen and TAP country manager for Greece Rikard Skoufias, he underlined that the implementation of the project will turn Greece into a trans-European energy

The project’s section that passes through Greece is a 1.5-billion-euro private investment that will create 12,000 direct or indirect jobs; beginning in 2017 it will gradually carry 10 billion square metres of natural gas.

According to the state General Accounting Office, the annual public revenues from the consortium’s taxation in the period 2015-2018 will be 390,000 euros, while in the period 2019 -2042 they will amount to 15,600,000 euros a year.

Michalos said that the creation of vertical natural gas axes and corridors to link the project with the Balkans and Central Europe is in the government’s plans.

Meanwhile, the Western Macedonia Regional Council in northwest Greece gave the green light to the pipeline project, which will pass through the region, by issuing a positive opinion on its environmental impact study and its support facilities, it was announced on Thursday.

The region’s governor, Giorgos Dakis, said that informative meetings with TAP executives had preceded, where local authorities and residents had the opportunity to outline their views and raise any objections.

He said that the region of Western Macedonia will benefit both during the pipeline’s construction phase and during its operation, as “according to a study by the Institute for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE), Western Macedonia will absorb 12 pct of the overall positive outcome for northern Greece; speaking in value-added terms, this will correspond to roughly 2.4 billion euros”.

Dakis clarified that aside from the activation of technical companies in the region, prospects are good for the founding and operation of companies that will provide support services directly or indirectly linked with the project.

He also commented that the technical potential leading to the upgrading of the region’s power production capacity opens the way to the post-lignite era and contributes in a decisive manner to the preservation of the region’s energy production character.

Source: AMNA