BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov.12
By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:
Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) will be constructed ahead of the schedule, said Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borissov.
Inspecting the progress of construction of IGB on Nov.11, Borissov said that next year Bulgaria would be entitled to say it has achieved gas independence, Trend reports citing Bulgarian media.
“The route will be completed ahead of schedule and Bulgaria will be able to supply LNG from the United States, Qatar, Cyprus, Egypt and Azerbaijan,” he said.
Borissov pointed out that after an extremely transparent procedure, Bulgaria took out a loan with a bank guarantee and is contributing 500 million leva to the project.
“Two Greek companies won the contracts for pipe supply and construction. This shows we are not just open and transparent. We have always said that Bulgaria and Greece must share their resources - Greece should be able to use the Black Sea and Bulgaria should be able to use the Aegean Sea,” said the prime minister.
Borissov stressed that IGB is key to the diversification of sources and routes for natural gas
supply to Southeastern Europe.
IGB is a gas pipeline, which will allow Bulgaria to receive Azerbaijani gas, in particular, the gas produced from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz 2 gas and condensate field. IGB is expected to be connected to TAP via which gas from the Shah Deniz field will be delivered to the European markets.
The Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria project envisages a two-stage development.
In the first stage, the pipeline capacity will be 3 billion cubic meters of gas, of which 2.7 billion cubic meters will be offered for the long-term market, the remaining share of 0.3 billion cubic meters in the short term.
In a second phase, also depending on the evolution of the market, the capacity of the pipeline can be increased to 5.3 billion cubic meters of gas thanks to the addition of a compression station: 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas 0.5 billion cubic meters of short-term gas will be offered for long-term products.
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