Bulgaria said it would start receiving US liquefied natural gas in June after Russia’s Gazprom cut off pipeline gas supplies to the European country.
According to a statement by the Bulgarian government on Wednesday, this was agreed during a meeting in Washington between US Vice President Kamala Harris and Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov.
The agreed prices would be lower than the ones with Gazprom, the statement said, but it did not provide any additional information.
Bulgaria has no LNG import facilities. However, the country is working with Greece to receive LNG supplies via the latter’s regasification plants.
Bulgaria’s Bulgartransgaz has a 20 percent in Gastrade’s FSRU-based Alexandroupolis LNG import project which should go online in 2023.
Last month, Greek media also reported that DESFA had granted capacity access to Bulgaria to its LNG import terminal located on the island of Revithoussa, currently the only such facility in Greece.
DESFA is adding floating storage capacity to the Revithoussa LNG import plant. LNG deliveries to this plant surged in the first quarter of this year due to higher volumes from the US.
Greece and Bulgaria are also partners in the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria. This pipeline should deliver regasified LNG in the future as well.
Bulgarian Energy Holding and a joint venture of DEPA and Italian energy group Edison own this project.
According to the project operator ICGB, the pipeline has reached a 91 percent completion mark as of mid-April.