BULGARIA

Representatives of ICGB AD (Bulgaria), Bulgartransgaz EAD (Bulgaria), DESFA S.A. (Greece), Gastrade S.A. (Greece), FGSZ LTD (Hungary) and SNTGN TRANSGAZ S.A. (Romania) signed the renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding on the implementation of the Vertical Gas Corridor. The meeting took place in Athens, Greece.

Activities for the implementation of the stages specified in the Construction Permit for the Greece-Bulgaria Interconnector are progressing and are being implemented by the Greek construction company AVAX.

These activities do not interfere with the independent functioning of the gas pipeline, which is why the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works MRDPW approved their separation into separate stages of construction.

Europe relies on natural gas supplies from Azerbaijan.

This was stated by the ex-president of the Republic of Bulgaria, Petar Stoyanov, in "Trend" on November 17, 2022.

"Azerbaijan will play a very important role as Europe's energy partner, especially when we are facing the current energy crisis. Not only Bulgaria, but also all of Europe rely on the future energy cooperation with Azerbaijan," said Petar Stoyanov.

Over 1 billion kWh were transferred via the intersystem gas connection Greece-Bulgaria in the first month of commercial operation of the gas pipeline. The total amount of natural gas for the period October 1 - November 1, 2022 amounts to 1,105,908,000 kWh or 95,000,000 cubic meters.

The intermodal transport corridor Thessaloniki-Kavala-Alexandroupolis-Burgas-Varna-Rousse will soon not be just an ambitious plan, we are determined to make it a reality. This was the general opinion expressed at a meeting today between the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Policies and Minister of Transport and Communications Hristo Alexiev and the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport of Greece Kostas Karamanlis. Rail and road connectivity, as well as cooperation between Bulgarian and Greek ports, was the main topic of the conversation.

A new reduction in the price of natural gas. The Energy and Water Regulation Commission (EWRC) approved a price of BGN 123.01 per megawatt hour for November. Thus, the reduction compared to October is slightly over 47%. “Bulgargaz” proposed the price to be 123.46, but after calculation, KEVR made the correction.

The initial statement of “Bulgargaz” from the end of October was that we would pay about BGN 130. Due to the continuing tendency for gas to become cheaper on the exchanges, the approved price is lower.

The independent transmission operator ICGB absorbed the last tranche of the long-term loan from the European Investment Bank (EIB) for the implementation of the intersystem gas connection Greece-Bulgaria.

The independent transmission operator ICGB, which operates the Greece-Bulgaria commercial interconnector, has entered into a natural gas transmission contract with the American company Linden Energy LLC. The agreement is for a period of 20 years.

Linden Energy LLC is a US-based company with strategic interests in the regional natural gas market. The company recently finalized an equity stake in one of Bulgaria's largest natural gas suppliers (“Overgas”) and announced plans to build a regasification facility in Albania.

Over 303,000,000 kWh were transferred over the Greece-Bulgaria interconnector in the first days of commercial operation of the facility. The amounts are equal to more than 303 GWh from October 1st to October 9th inclusive.

Carrier ICGB will offer monthly input and output capacity for November on 17/10/2022. The auctions will be held on two leading European platforms - PRISMA and RBP.

The Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) will be able to bring more than 9.5 billion cubic meters of gas to Italy this year, which is 2.5 times more than in 2021, said

Luca Schieppati, TAP's Managing Director, Trend reports.

“We are talking about over 13 percent of the national gas demand,” he said addressing the Young Hope event in Italy.