The Bulgarian energy minister said on Thursday the gas
interconnector linking the country to neighbouring Greece is scheduled to be
operational by 2018.
Bulgaria has designed a roadmap with activities and
deadlines for the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB Pipeline) and is soon
expected to accept a detailed development plan for the gas link, Temenuzhka
Petkova was quoted as saying in a press release after a meeting with her Greek
counterpart.
The interconnector is a key link for the implementation of a
project for a vertical gas corridor, connecting Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania,
the press release indicated.
The Bulgarian government decided in November
last year to allow state guarantees of up to 80 million euro ($90.7 million) in
2015 on loans for the financing of the gas link with Greece due to a significant
delay in the project.
The IGB Pipeline,which will be 182 km long, will
start in the northeastern Greek city of Komotini and end at Stara Zagora in
Bulgaria. It is estimated to cost 220 million euro. It will carry 3 billion cu m
of natural gas annually in its initial stage and will have a maximum capacity of
5 billion cu m per year. It will eventually be connected to the Trans Adriatic
Pipeline (TAP), carrying natural gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe through
Greece.
Greek natural gas transmission system operator DESFA said in May
last year it had completed the first phase of works for the second upgrade of
the border metering stationin Sidirokastro, part of the IGB Pipeline, enabling
natural gas exports to Bulgaria. The Greek company also said it had invested a
total of 3.3 million euro in implementing the project.
In December last
year, Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania committed to develop a vertical gas corridor
connecting them. Bulgaria also sent a letter at the time to the European
Commission proposing to build an EU-funded regional gas hub near the Black Sea
port of Varna to dispatch Russian gas deliveries to the rest of Europe. Parallel
to that, Bulgaria and Serbia decided to update the parameters of, and expedite
work on, a gas interconnector linking the two countries.
The total
capacity of Bulgaria's gas delivery grid will grow to 20 billion cu m per year
after all gas links have been constructed, the chairman of the parliamentary
energy committee, Delyan Dobrev, was quoted as saying in a press release by the
country's ruling GERB party on Wednesday.
Securing alternative gas supply
routes has come into sharper focus for the countries in SEE after Russia
announced, in December, it had abandoned plans to build the South Stream gas
pipeline, which was planned to carry gas from Russia under the Black Sea, making
landfall in Bulgaria and then continuing through Serbia and Hungary towards
Austria.
Bulgaria imports about 90% of the natural gas it needs from
Russia through a pipeline crossing the territories of Ukraine, Moldova and
Romania.