With the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Gazprom, Edison SpA and DEPA SA for gas deliveries across the Black Sea from Russia to Greece and ultimately Italy, Russia has signaled its interest in keeping the southern gas route option alive.

Previous recent manifestations of this option, like South Stream and Turkish Stream, have all been discarded for various reasons.

Alexey Miller, CEO of Gazprom, says: “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.”

The Southern Gas Pipeline Option, otherwise known as the Interconnector Turkey–Greece–Italy (ITGI) could also speed up the ratification of the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. Rome was reportedly irritated by the German project because Italian energy major Eni was a big investor in South Stream, and Italy was supposed to be the main consumer of South Stream gas. Given this new project, Rome is expected to soften its stance.