IGI
Poseidon, a 50/50 partnership between DEPA, the
Public Gas Corporation of Greece, and Italy's
Edison, is ready to sign a final investment
decision (FID) on the Gas Interconnector
Greece-Bulgaria by the end of November, a senior
DEPA official said on Thursday.
The construction of the IGB Pipeline will start in
the beginning of 2016, and is supposed to be
completed by 2018, Kostas Karayannakos, DEPA
division head international projects and gas
supply, said during an economic conference in
Sofia.
The IGB Pipeline,which will be 182 km long, will
link the northeastern Greek city of Komotini with
Stara Zagora in Bulgaria. It is estimated to cost
220 million euro ($239 million). 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.
The pipeline is an essential part of a vertical
gas corridor connecting Bulgaria, Greece and
Romania, which the three countries have committed
to develop.
In March, Bulgaria's energy ministry said a FID on
IGB Pipeline would be signed by the end of May.
"The process was slowed down due to negotiation of
some contractual documents, long negotiations took
place, but now this is almost finalised,"
Karayannakos told a SeeNews reporter on the
sidelines of the conference.
Part of the funding - 45 million euro ($51.3
million) was contributed by the European Union
(EU) in the form of a grant, Karayannakos added.
"We are also exploring several options for
co-financing with banks and institutions such as
the EBRD [the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development] and EIB [the European Investment
Bank]. Along with EBRD we have a cooperation on
the process and we are in talks," Karayannakos
also said.
Bulgaria imports about 90% of the natural gas it
needs from Russia through a pipeline crossing the
territories of Ukraine, Moldova and Romania.
Source: SeeNews