Energy-sector authorities in Greece and the wider region are scrambling to keep alive a plan for the Vertical Corridor gas pipeline, envisaged to connect the gas systems of Greece and eastern European countries, following the failure of binding market tests to attract any interest of note.
DESFA, the Greek gas transmission system operator, staged a binding market test from July 2 until today to gauge investor interest on capacity boosts at the country’s gas grid entry and exit points.
The procedure failed to attract any significant investor interest, as was also the case with equivalent market tests staged by six other countries included in the Vertical Corridor plan.
DESFA and its six counterparts involved in the Vertical Corridor plan – Bulgaria’s Bulgartransgaz, Romania’s Transgaz, Hungary’s FGSZ, Slovakia’s Eustream, Moldova’s VMTG, and Ukraine’s GTSOU – have scheduled a meeting for next week to seek ways that could enable the project to qualify for EU funding support, not possible under its current framework, energypress.eu reports.
Overall investments of nearly 3 billion euros will be needed, with one billion euros required in Romania alone.
Capacity bookings submitted during the market tests were limited to short periods of one year, sources informed, falling well short of an objective to secure 15-year capacity bookings, necessary to make such investments viable.
