Bulgaria intends to import small quantities of gas from Azerbaijan prior to the
commissioning of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), Azeri media
reported.
The gas will be transferred through the existing gas system in
Turkey, as well as to through a future gas interconnector between Greece and
Bulgaria at Komotini via Turkey, Azeri news outfit abc.az said on Friday citing
sources from the Bulgarian embassy in Azerbaijan.
The deliveries of Azeri
gas are expected to start in 2017 from the Azeri state-owned gas and oil company
SOCAR to Bulgaria’s gas monopoly Bulgargaz.
Earlier this month, during a
visit of Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev to Azerbaijan for the official
launch of the Southern Gas Corridor project, officials of SOCAR and Bulgargaz
agreed to start negotiations on the launch of Azeri natural gas supplies to
Bulgaria in 2017 via the interconnector between Greece and Bulgaria (IGB
Pipeline), which is to be deployed by the end of 2016.
The
182-kilometreIGB Pipeline 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.
Earlier this year, the energy ministry also said it has
signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the construction of a gas
interconnector with Turkey. The construction of the gas interconnector on
Bulgarian territory has been awarded to Bulgarian gas transmission system
operator Bulgartransgaz.
TAP, with an approximate length of 870
kilometres, will transport natural gas from the Shah Deniz II field in
Azerbaijan to Europe. It will start at Kipoi, near the Turkish-Greek border, and
cross Greece and Albania and the Adriatic Sea, before coming ashore in southern
Italy. TAP’s routing can facilitate gas supply to several SoutheastEuropean
countries, including Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and
others.
Bulgaria imports almost all the natural gas it needs from Russia
through a pipeline crossing the territories of Ukraine, Moldova and
Romania.