Bulgaria to receive full volumes of gas from Azerbaijan through temporary point

From today on, Bulgaria will be receiving the entire quantities of natural gas under the contract with Azerbaijan, Report informs, citing the Bulgarian Energy Ministry.

However, this will not happen through the Bulgarian-Greek gas connection, but at the temporary delivery point Nea Mesimvria. The interconnector is expected to be ready in the fall, according to the ministry's response.

According to the contract, the currently cheaper gas from Azerbaijan must enter Bulgaria through the Bulgaria-Greece interconnector.

This gas connection, however, is still not fully ready, and the Ministry of Energy assures that "the introduction into commercial operation of the Greece-Bulgaria interconnector will be in time for the upcoming heating season, and we are actively working towards the commercial operation taking place even earlier".

At the moment, the main construction activities have been completed, and the first tests with real quantities of natural gas in the direction of Stara Zagora-Komotini have also been successfully completed. In this month, the gas transfer is to be tested in the opposite direction as well.

Confirmation by the European Commission is still awaited regarding the certification of the design company of the interconnector – ICGB, as an independent transmission operator, which is a mandatory requirement for the commercial operation of the gas pipeline, as well as several other procedures.

Their term is usually 3 months, in which case it is expected to be shortened due to the importance of the gas pipeline and the benefits it will have for the Bulgarian market after its commissioning.

Thus, starting today, Azerbaijan will supply the full volume of the quantities agreed with Bulgargaz to the temporary delivery point Nea Mesimvria, and this should be reflected in the price of gas for the month of July.

At the moment, the gas storage in Chiren is a little over a third full - 34.5 percent, and there are 190 million cubic meters of gas pumped into it.

IGB is developing in synergy with other major projects such as the Trans Adriatic Gas Pipeline (TAP), the Trans Anatolian Gas Pipeline (TANAP) and the Liquefied Natural Gas Terminal near Alexandroupolis (Greece), which will allow access to many new markets, especially in the South East Europe region.

The capacity of the IGB pipeline is 3 bcm/y from Greece to Bulgaria, which can be increased to 5 bcm/y with the installation of a compressor station, allowing for reverse flow if there is market interest.