Wednesday, March 22, 2023
 
 

Greece, Bulgaria Gas Link To Lessen EU Dependence on Russia

A final investment agreement (FID) to build the Interconnector Greece Bulgaria (IGB) was signed in Sofia on December 10.

- Advertisement -

Greece and Bulgaria signed on December 10 a long-delayed final investment agreement (FID) to build a 180-kilometre natural gas pipeline to help Sofia reduce its heavy dependence on Russian energy supplies. A Bulgarian-Greek joint venture that also includes Italian energy group Edison will build the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) with an initial annual capacity of 3 billion cubic metres per year.

“This signing gives the real start of the project, which is strategic not only for Bulgaria and Greece, but also for all southeastern Europe,” Bulgarian Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova said after the ceremony, also attended by her Greek counterpart Panos Skourletis.

The Greek energy minister also called the IGB a strategic project that enjoys the political support of Sofia and Athens, which will contribute to EU energy security. IGB, the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), which will bring gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz field, and the new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Alexandroupolis will help Greece became a gas hub in the Balkans, he said. He added that IGB’s construction will start at the second half of 2016 and will take two years to complete. “At the end of the second half of 2018, the pipeline will be operational,” Skourletis said.

IGB is estimated to cost about €220 million and will be partially financed by a EU grant of €45 million. Bulgaria’s state owned energy holding company BEH has a 50% in the joint venture, while Greek public natural gas supply corporation DEPA and Edison hold 25% each.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said his country would aim to boost the IGB’s capacity to 20 billion cubic metres in the future.

Also on December 10, Bulgaria’s deputy Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev and Klaus-Dieter Borchardt, director of the European Commission’s Internal Energy Market Directorate, agreed to establish a joint working group to support the development of a gas hub in Bulgaria designed to serve the whole Balkan region.

Earlier this week, US Secretary of State John Kerry hailed Athens’ efforts to implement strategic energy projects that will cut Europe’s dependence on Russian gas, including the IGB pipeline.

A gas connection with Romania is now expected to be ready by the middle of 2016 and a gas pipeline with Serbia should also be ready in 2018.

Peter Poptchev, a long-time Bulgarian ambassador-at-large for energy security, told New Europe on December 10 that at a recent conference US energy companies Cheniere and Noble as well as France’s ENGIE have expressed an interest in utilising Greece’s LNG terminal on the island of Revithoussa and IGB for LNG deliveries, “as soon as IGB becomes operational”. He explained that if gas from Azerbaijan’s Shah Deniz 2 field would not come to Greece and Bulgaria before 2019 – 2020, IGB would still be able, in principle, to transmit gas from other sources – LNG from Revithoussa or the new terminal in Alexandroupolis or Kavala.

Meanwhile, sources with deep knowledge of gas regulation have said that they would not be surprised if Gazprom raised objections to IGB’s operations – in view of some specific clauses in the gas transit and gas delivery contracts the Russian gas monopoly has with companies in Bulgaria and Greece.

follow on twitter @energyinsider

- Advertisement -

Subscribe to our newsletter

Co-founder / Director of Energy & Climate Policy and Security at NE Global Media

Latest

EU-Turkey earthquake relief conference: Time to get serious

The European Union is hosting a reconstruction conference in...

Cambodia’s current government is the face of tropical Fascism

There is no hope that the authoritarianism that the world sees in places like Russia, China and Cambodia can ever be interpreted as a peaceful and benign phenomenon, or that it should be accepted by an implicit racist or discriminatory assumption that some cultures just don’t have a democratic tradition and aren’t quite capable of ever developing one.

Energy supply diversification out of Russia’s orbit is a top priority for Bulgaria

Bulgaria intends to diversify its energy resources, including supplying...

Recovery from the disaster of the century needs more than a few months of international assistance

Two devastating earthquakes hit the Turkish-Syrian border on February...

Don't miss

EU-Turkey earthquake relief conference: Time to get serious

The European Union is hosting a reconstruction conference in...

Cambodia’s current government is the face of tropical Fascism

There is no hope that the authoritarianism that the world sees in places like Russia, China and Cambodia can ever be interpreted as a peaceful and benign phenomenon, or that it should be accepted by an implicit racist or discriminatory assumption that some cultures just don’t have a democratic tradition and aren’t quite capable of ever developing one.

Energy supply diversification out of Russia’s orbit is a top priority for Bulgaria

Bulgaria intends to diversify its energy resources, including supplying...

Recovery from the disaster of the century needs more than a few months of international assistance

Two devastating earthquakes hit the Turkish-Syrian border on February...

Georgia has shown the world that a Kremlin project can be defeated

Over the past few days, the world’s attention was...

Energy supply diversification out of Russia’s orbit is a top priority for Bulgaria

Bulgaria intends to diversify its energy resources, including supplying the country’s main refinery in Burgas - the largest in the Balkans - with non-Russian...

Georgia has shown the world that a Kremlin project can be defeated

Over the past few days, the world’s attention was on Georgia. We saw massive protests fueled by anger, concerns and fear, and eventually, we...

Putin’s New START withdrawal has broad implications

Vladimir Putin continues to persuade Russians that the West provoked his imperialist war of aggression against Ukraine. His announcement that he would no longer...

Energy-strapped Germany sets ambitious 30 GW offshore wind target by 2030

Germany, which has been struggling to fill its massive energy gap following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and reduction of natural gas deliveries, is planning...

Providing Ukraine with advanced Western fighters is a logical step towards battlefield success

While Ukraine may have weathered the storm of Russia’s initial onslaught and retaliated with a force and determination largely thought to have been beyond...

Eclipsed by Ukraine concerns, Blinken visits Turkey and Greece

After attending the Munich Security Conference on February on 17-19, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken departed for a brief regional mission to Turkey...

Georgia, Romania mull Black Sea undersea power cable to supply CEE Europe

Georgia, which is a transit country for oil and gas routes, is spearheading efforts to launch a very ambitious project that would create a corridor for green energy from the Caspian to the Balkans and CEE.

A Belarusian politician, fraudster and businessman kept money in Credit Suisse

It was the last summer day of 2008. An Audi was waiting in line to leave Belarus for Poland. Petr Kalugin, a House of Representatives deputy,...