BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 4. The Greece-Bulgaria interconnector (IGB) pipeline already has 40 registered network users in less than two years of commercial operations, Head of Commercial at ICGB (operator of IGB) Slav Nikolov said at the 5th Power & Gas Forum held in Greece, Trend reports via ICGB's social media publication.
"Being a part of the Vertical Gas Corridor and providing direct access to the Southern Gas Corridor, IGB plays a significant role in the energy security of the SEE [Southeast Europe] region," Nikolov noted.
He briefed on ICGB's plans to expand the pipeline’s capacity from three to five billion cubic meters per year.
Furthermore, Nikolov stated that ICGB already provides
quasi-yearly and quasi-quarterly capacity at the interconnection
point with the Greek national transmission system operator DESFA,
which meets EU requirements.
Previously, ICGB's Executive Officer Teodora Georgieva expressed
hope that the IP at Stara Zagora would be operational with
additional capacity by the fourth quarter of 2025 and the IP at
Komotini by the fourth quarter of 2026, respectively.
To note, the first gas for IGB was Azerbaijani gas from the Shah Deniz field in 2022.
The IGB is part of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) due to its direct connection with the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), the European segment of the SGC.
Commercial gas supplies from Shah Deniz started via IGB in October 2022.
Bulgaria has been purchasing Azerbaijani gas at a peak rate of one billion cubic meters per year since 2023, in accordance with the 25-year contract struck in Baku in 2013.