ATHENS, Jan 19 (Reuters) – Ukraine, Moldova and Slovakia joined an initiative on Friday to transport gas from Greece to countries further north, as Europe steps up efforts to diversify its sources energy supply.
Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary decided in 2016 to develop the infrastructure necessary to establish a “vertical corridor”, which would allow the two-way exchange of gas flows between the countries.
“The vertical corridor will now include the Trans Balkan gas pipeline and will allow the transportation of natural gas from Greece to Moldova,” said the Moldovan Energy Ministry.
The gas operators of Slovakia, Modavia and Ukraine and their Greek, Romanian, Bulgarian and Hungarian equivalents signed a memorandum of understanding on Friday aimed at promoting the projects necessary for the implementation of the initiative.
The Trans Balkan pipeline was used to transport Russian gas to the Balkan countries via Ukraine, Moldova and Romania. Its capacity has been reduced since the Russian company Gazprom decided in 2020 to divert its gas flows to Turkey via the TurkStream gas pipeline. (Reporting Angeliki Koutantou in Athens, Yuliia Dysa in Gdansk and Alexander Tanas in Chisinau; French version Camille Raynaud)
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