Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 4 / Trend A.Badalova /
The Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) will be completed in 2016, Novinite Sofia News Agency reported with reference to the CEO of Bulgaria's state-owned gas transmission operator Bulgartransgaz Kiril Temelkov.
According to Temelkov, this gas grid interconnection would allow Bulgaria to receive gas supplies from the Caspian region through the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).
The TAP project is designed to transport gas from the Caspian region via Greece and Albania and across the Adriatic Sea to southern Italy and then to Western Europe. In late June the Azerbaijani Shah Deniz field development consortium selected TAP as a gas transportation route to European markets.
Earlier a spokesperson for TAP told Trend that in the last few months that TAP had several productive meetings with ICGB, the company developing the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) to explore the possibility of interconnection of our systems.
"We are confident that a mutually beneficial solution will be found through the efforts of all involved parties to enable gas deliveries into Bulgaria especially given the announcement a week ago in Baku where BulgarGaz was selected as one of the purchasers of Shah Deniz gas," the spokesperson said.
On September 19, the Shah Deniz consortium signed gas purchase contracts with nine European companies, including Bulgargaz.
According to BP Vice-President for the Shah Deniz development Al Cook, Bulgaria will receive one billion cubic meters of gas annually from Shah Deniz 2 field.
Gas to be produced within the second stage of the Shah Deniz field development will be delivered to Turkey in 2018 and to Europe in 2019.