site.btaBulgaria to Store Natgas for Greece in Chiren

Bulgaria and Greece are close to signing a Memorandum of Understanding, under which Sofia will maintain strategic natural gas reserves on behalf of Athens at the Chiren facilities, where the Public Gas Corporation of Greece has installed quantities equivalent to 400,000 MWh, the Greek daily Kathimerini reported. This is part of the further cooperation between the two countries on the issues of securing enough energy for the winter season, which were discussed at a working dinner on November 3 by Greek Environment and Energy Minister Kostas Skrekas and a Bulgarian delegation headed by the caretaker Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Policies and Minister of Transport Hristo Aleksiev.

Greece's only gas storage facility is the Revithoussa LNG Terminal, which is why the country has to maintain its strategic reserves in another EU Member State. In this context, Greece has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Italy.

Reportedly, the plan is to offset the quantities that Greek companies will store in Bulgaria with quantities of Azerbaijani gas or LNG designated for Bulgaria. This will allow Greece to keep the relevant quantities instead of waiting for them to be transferred from Bulgaria, thus being able to use them at any moment.

The energy regulators' Action Plan calls for importing companies to maintain gas availability from November 1, 2022, to March 21, 2023, in Italy or another EU Member State, with the market price no higher than the price agreed with Italy. Total reserves should be equivalent to 1.14 TWh.

Bulgaria relies on cooperation with Greece for its gas supply, as this will be the first winter without Russian gas since Russia cut off supplies in April 2022, which covered almost 100% of Bulgaria's annual consumption of 33 TWh, Kathimerini noted.