site.btaUPDATED Greece-Bulgaria Interconnector Gets Use Permit

The Greece-Bulgaria gas interconnector has been granted a use permit, which is the final document required for the start of the facility's operation, Bulgarian caretaker Regional Development and Public Works Ivan Shishkov said here on Wednesday.

"Right from the day when the caretaker cabinet took office, we started talks with the developer. We managed to catch up with all insignificant delays. We helped the project company to complete the work. We assisted materially in putting together the full set of documents," Shishkov pointed out.

He described the use permit issued for the interconnector as "an enormous success for the caretaker cabinet", which did not result from any concessions on requirements for documents. 

The Greece-Bulgaria gas interconnector is expected to be commissioned on Saturday, October 1. "It can go into operation in the true sense of the word without infringements of any standards in Bulgaria," Shishkov added.

On September 20, ICGB Bulgaria, the independent transmission system operator which is responsible for the inteconnector's commercial operation, said that a capacity of 1.57 billion cu m/year (half of the pipeline's total capacity of some 3 billion cu m/year) have already been booked under long-term agreements of up to 25 years. The remaining available capacity, 1.43 billion cu m/year, will be offered through auctions as from October 1, 2022 on two of the leading capacity booking platforms, PRISMA and RBP.

All auctions will be performed according to the Auction Calendar of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG).

The ICGB pipeline is 182 km long, of which 151 km in Bulgaria and 31 km in Greece. It runs from Komotini (Northeastern Greece) via Kurdjali, Haskovo and Dimitrovgrad to Stara Zagora (Southeastern Bulgaria). The interconnector is part of the vertical gas corridor connecting Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary which provides access to natural gas and LNG from the South Gas Corridor to Southeastern and Central Europe and Ukraine. The total cost of the pipeline exceeds EUR 240 million, of which EUR 45 million came as a grant from the European Commission in 2010 and another EUR 35 million were provided under an operational programme. The European Investment Bank loan-financed the project with EUR 110 million.