Projects interconnecting energy and geopolitics need to have a market

A host of energy projects, such as TAP, IGB, Turkish Stream and others are under way or in the preparation phase in the Balkans and Black Sea region, and Greece must make the most of them to upgrade its status to energy hub, notes Dr Theodoros Tsakiris, assistant professor of energy policy and geopolitics at the University of Nicosia in Cyprus.

He is taking part in the Balkans & Black Sea Cooperation Forum that opens on Thursday in Serres during a period of frantic planning and project implementation as regards a number of interconnection pipelines and energy networks across the region, with multiple geopolitical and financial implications. He cautions that interconnection projects have to make financial sense to be feasible regardless of their political significance and highlights several projects of energy source diversification that will free the region of various...