Bulgaria is building its gas transmission highway in its territory, both in east-west (the extension of TurkStream pipeline) and north-south direction, said Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov during an inspection of the progress of the construction of the Greece-Bulgaria gas interconnection (so-called IGB gas pipeline).
PM Borisov said that Bulgaria is diversifying its gas sources by building these pipelines, noting that interconnection with Greece will bring Azeri gas, as well as liquefied natural gas from terminals in Greece.
The entire route of the Greece-Bulgaria gas interconnector is 181 kilometers, of which 151 kilometers are on Bulgarian territory. The cost of the project is 240 million euros, of which 110 million have been provided by the Bulgarian Government. Separately, 39 million euros has been allocated for this purpose under the Operational Program “Innovation and Competitiveness” and 45 million euros grant under the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).
Minister of Energy Temenuzhka Petkova said that this will be an extremely important infrastructure project not only for Bulgaria, but for the whole region, as it will provide the opportunity to have a real diversification of sources of natural gas supply.
120 kilometers of pipes have been produced for the construction of the interconnector, of which 110 kilometers have already been delivered to Bulgaria.
Last May, ICGB, a joint venture company of Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) and IGI Poseidon, in which Greek Public Gas Corporation (DEPA) and Italian Edison hold equal stakes, awarded a contract for the construction of Bulgaria-Greece gas interconnection, so-called IGB pipeline, to Greek J&P-AVAX, which offered 144.85 million euros. The project company also awarded a supply line pipes contract worth 58.2 million euros to Greek Corinth Pipeworks Industry.
