The European Union is supporting expansions at three gas storage facilities in Romania and Bulgaria, increasing both reserves and delivery capacity to help regional markets manage supply disruptions and winter demand.
Funding through the Connecting Europe Facility will cover 35–50% of eligible project costs.
At Romania’s Bilciurești facility, daily withdrawal capacity is set to rise to 20 million cubic metres from 14 million, while working gas capacity will increase by 108 million cubic metres, or about 9%.
The first phase of the Depomureș expansion will add 100 million cubic metres, bringing working capacity to 400 million cubic metres. Injection and withdrawal rates are expected to increase by around 75% to 3.5 million cubic metres a day.
Bulgaria’s Chiren facility is being expanded towards 1 billion cubic metres of storage, with injection and withdrawal capacity expected to reach 8–10 million cubic metres a day.
The projects address a constraint beyond storage volume: how quickly operators can release gas when demand rises. Faster withdrawals could strengthen supply flexibility across neighbouring markets, provided sufficient cross-border transport capacity is available.
