The gas interconnector between
Romania and Bulgaria is expected to go into operation in 2015, Bulgarian energy
minister Vasil Shtonov said on Tuesday.
The pipeline will play a key role in reducing Bulgaria's dependence on a single
energy source,together with the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB
Pipeline), which is also under construction, Shtonov told the Natural Gas -
Infrastructure, Market, and Services conference, according to a statement
released by the ministry.
The 25-kilometre (km) Romania-Bulgaria pipeline links the southern Romanian
village of Comasca with Marten, in northern Bulgaria,under the Danube
river. The project includes the construction of a 15 km pipeline in Bulgaria,
another 7.5 km in Romania and a 2.5 km underwater section.
The maximum design capacity of the pipeline is 1.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) a
year.
The other gas pipeline, linking Bulgaria to Greece, is expected to become
operational in 2016. The 182-kilometreIGB Pipeline, which will start at
the northeastern Greek city of Komotini and end at Stara Zagora, in southern Bulgaria,
will carry 3.0 bcm of natural gas annually in its initial stage and will have a
maximum capacity of 5.0 bcm per year. It will be eventually connected to
the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), part of the Southern Gas Corridor.
According to Shtonov, the expected supply of 1.0 bcm of gas annually from the
Shah Deniz 2 field through the Southern Gas Corridor represents about 40% of
the current gas consumption of Bulgaria.
On Saturday, during a visit of Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev to
Azerbaijan for the official launch of the Southern Gas Corridor project,
officials of Azeri state-owned gas and oil company SOCAR and Bulgaria's gas
monopoly Bulgargaz signed a letter of intent on the launch of talks on the
possible launch in 2017 of Azeri natural gas supplies to Bulgaria via the IGB
pipeline.
The Southern Gas Corridor is a chain of gas pipelines from the Shah Deniz field
to the EU which includes the the South Caucasus Pipeline Expansion (SCPx) that
will cross Azerbaijan and Georgia, the Trans-Anatolia Pipeline (TANAP) across
Turkey, and TAP, which will start near the Turkish-Greek border, cross Greece
and Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in southern Italy.
Bulgaria imports almost all the natural gas it needs from Russia through a pipeline
crossing the territories of Ukraine, Moldova and Romania.
Source: SeeNews