site.btaEnergy Minister: There Is Confidence that Greece-Bulgaria Interconnector Will Begin to Pump Gas on October 1

For now there is confidence that the gas interconnector between Greece and Bulgaria will be completed and and it will begin to transmit gas from October 1, said caretaker Energy Minister Rossen Hristov. Even if the interconnector is finished earlier, gas cannot be pumped into it because of arrangements made by the previous government, he added.

Hristov inspected the Bulgarian section of the gas interconnector from the gas measuring station at Stara Zagora to the dispatch centre near the village of Stamboliisky.

One of the more important things that have to be completed is the SCADA system for electronic control of the gas interconnector, said Minister Hristov. The system is undergoing trials and on September 14 an expert board, commissioned by the Energy Ministry, will carry out a full monitoring of the system.

The second element are the systems for data transmission, connected with SCADA, which use an optic cable. Under the project a second optic cable is envisaged, said Hristov.

A third critical element is all components related to safety.