INOGATE Map of Natural Gas Pipelines

The priority axes for natural gas pipelines, which involve INOGATE Participating Countries and Russia, are as follows:

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The Northern Trans-European gas pipeline project
Approximately 1,295 kilometres long, this would transport Russian gas from the Russian coast north of St. Petersburg under the Baltic Sea to northern Germany and then onwards via the Netherlands to the United Kingdom. It would have a capacity of between 20 and 30 billion cubic metres a year, with the main future source of the gas for this pipeline foreseen to be the new Shtokman field, which lies some 650 kilometres north-east of Murmansk in the Barents Sea).

A second Yamal-Europe gas pipeline network
This network has two alternatives:

• through Belarus and Poland to run parallel to the first Yamal and would have a similar capacity. In this context, Belarus is an important transit country for Russian gas deliveries to Europe, with the country's natural gas transportation monopoly Beltransgaz managing a total of more than 2000 kilometres of natural gas pipelines. Total capacity for the two Yamal lines is foreseen at 65.7 billion cubic metres.
• through the Baltic States to Poland referred to as the "Amber" Project. This option appeared in 2004.

A Turkey-Greece-Italy interconnection drawing in the countries of South East Europe directly or indirectly, and would in time bring the resources of the Caspian region, Iran and the Middle East to the enlarged EU market and the Balkans. Total capacity is estimated at 22 billion cubic metres with a total of 3,398 kilometres of pipelines. Greece and Turkey are both signatories of the Umbrella Agreement and the first protocol for this interconnection was signed in July 2000 in the framework of the INOGATE Programme.

Turkey - Bulgaria - Romania - Hungary - Austria gas pipeline.
The geographic locations of Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary in between major producers of energy in Russia and the Caspian Sea region and major consumers of energy in Turkey and Europe - makes South Eastern Europe an important transit route for Russian, Caspian and Middle East natural gas supplies. Total capacity is estimated at 20 billion cubic metres with a total of 3,630 kilometres of pipelines.

Greece, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia gas pipeline
This pipeline is still in the early stages of development so no figures are currently available.

Azerbaijan - Georgia - Turkey gas pipeline
This pipeline (also referred to as the "BTE pipeline") will go through the Caucasus region westwards from Azerbaijan to Tbilisi, and then southwards to the Turkish town of Erzurum, where it will be connected to the Turkish gas pipeline system. The BTE pipeline will exploit the natural gas from the giant offshore Azeri field of Shah Deniz, which has proven reserves of 460 billion cubic metres. With a full capacity of around 8 billion cubic meteres per year, to be achieved in 2009, the BTE could start piping gas to Turkey as early as 2006, depending both on the development of the Azeri field and on the completion of the pipeline.

(Turkmenistan-) Iran - Turkey gas pipeline
This infrastructure linking Iran to Turkey already exists. However its expansion should be is foreseen provided that transit conditions are fixed under international rules. It will permit to Turkmen and Iranian gas to supply the EU market through the Turkey-Greece and Turkey-Romania interconnections.

Also, the Ukraine gas transit network is particularly important as it currently is responsible for transiting 40% of the EU's gas supplies. A priority will be to increase the overall performance, safety and security of the network.