BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 16. It is planned to increase the capacity of the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria by 2025, Lyubomira Gancheva, Head of Cabinet of Bulgaria’s Energy Ministry, said, Trend reports via NE Global.
She pointed out that the interconnector’s capacity will be increased in synergy with expansion of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) and the Trans Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP).
“It helped us diversify the sources and the routes of natural gas in Bulgaria because when the Ukraine war started, Bulgaria was the first country that was cut off from Russian gas supplies,” said Gancheva.
The Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria began commercial operation on October 1, 2022. Its initial capacity is 3 billion cubic meters with the possibility of expansion to 5 billion cubic meters per year.
Since the beginning of the current heating season, the interconnector provides nearly 1/3 of the winter consumption of natural gas in Bulgaria. IGB is the first route for diversified supplies of natural gas to Bulgaria, guaranteeing increased security of supply and diversity of sources, contributing significantly to the competition in the natural gas market, which is a prerequisite for optimized prices for businesses and domestic consumers in the country.
The gas pipeline creates an entirely new route through Bulgaria for the transportation of natural gas from new sources to a number of countries, which reinforces the key role of the interconnector not only at a national level, but also for the entire region of Central and Southeastern Europe.
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