Brussels, 17/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has authorised EUR 61 million in aid to Bord Gais Eireann from the Northern Ireland Department of Enterprise Trade and Investment for the development of the natural gas infrastructure in Northern Ireland. Currently all natural gas in Northern Ireland is supplied via a single underwater pipeline from Scotland, which only serves the Greater Belfast and Larne areas. The project will connect the Northern Irish gas infrastructure to that of the Republic of Ireland, reducing dependence on the single pipeline from Scotland, and will lay new pipelines to areas that have not had access to natural gas to date. The project will therefore take a big step towards the development of an all-island natural gas infrastructure. The Commission authorized the aid in line with similar authorisations for Spain, Greece and Ireland.