Bulgaria and Greece have completed a new pipeline which will allow Bulgaria to import natural gas from Azerbaijan and Gastrade’s FSRU-based Alexandroupolis LNG import project.
State-owned Bulgarian Energy Holding and a joint venture of DEPA and Italian energy group Edison own the gas interconnector.
The partners announced the completion of the pipeline in a statement last week. They held an event at the gas measuring station near the Greek city of Komotini, where the pipeline connects to the gas transmission network of Greece and to the Trans-Adriatic pipeline.
The 182 kilometers long pipeline stretches to Stara Zagora and has an initial capacity of 3 billion cubic meters (bcm), but there are plans to later raise this to 5 bcm.
Following the completion of administrative procedures under the jurisdiction of a number of Bulgarian and Greek institutions, the partners plan to launch commercial operations of the pipeline “as soon as possible”, the statement said.
Bulgarian LNG imports
Bulgaria said in May it would start receiving US LNG in June after Russia’s Gazprom cut off pipeline gas supplies to the European country.
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.
Previous reports also said 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.
According to DESFA’s data, Bulgargaz, a unit of Bulgarian Energy Holding, has received a partial LNG cargo at the Revithoussa LNG terminal on board the 174,000-cbm La Seine on July 2.
The firm took about 96,012 cbm of LNG, Elpedison 51,698 cbm, and DEPA 8,863 cbm.
La Seine’s AIS data provided by VesselsValue shows that the LNG carrier delivered the cargo from Sempra’s Cameron LNG plant in Louisiana.