BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec.9
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Bulgarian Parliament has ratified the guarantee agreement between Bulgaria and the European Investment Bank under the contract of October 10 this year between the European Investment Bank and the Bulgarian Energy Holding EAD to finance the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) project, Trend reports citing Radio Bulgaria.
“This will secure the IGB construction, a project that is included in the EU's seven most important energy sector priorities and which will enable real diversification of the sources and routes of supply of natural gas,” reads the message.
A 109-million-euro reciprocal loan agreement with the EIB will be secured by BEH and backed by a state guarantee.
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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