Italy faces stiff competition from Germany in the race to become the primary gas transit hub supplying Central and Eastern Europe, but its transit credentials are set to be boosted by a number of proposed infrastructure projects.
One is a pipeline connection to create physical reverse flows that will stretch across the Alps and connect Italy to networks in Austria and Switzerland from 2018. Another is the bidirectional Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which will connect Italy to Azerbaijan via Turkey and Greece. Another mooted pipeline, the Poseidon project, could link Italy to new supply sources in the East Mediterranean.