TEODORA GEORGIEVA

Following a tender in accordance with the Public Procurement Law, ICGB commissions a Bulgarian company to develop a detailed design for the Stara Zagora gas metering station (GIS2), which will expand the capacity of the IGB gas pipeline. The transport operator is working to develop the gas pipeline infrastructure and increase the total technical capacity from 3 billion cubic meters per year to 5 billion cubic meters per year.

Plans to expand the capacity of the IGB interconnector to 5 billion cubic meters per year will be of great importance to be able to transfer 10 billion cubic meters per year of LNG from the terminals in Greece and Caspian gas through the Southern Gas Corridor, reaching Moldova, Ukraine, Hungary and Slovakia.

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.

Procedures for commissioning the Greece-Bulgaria interconnector on October 1 are progressing according to schedule. The implementation of the project is in the final stage of realization and administrative procedures for issuing the relevant licenses for exploitation and right of use are running in parallel in both countries.

The finishing works required for the introduction of the intersystem gas connection Greece-Bulgaria are progressing according to the set schedule.

The interconnector with Greece is already successfully connected to the national and transit gas transmission network, as well as to neighboring transmission operators, ensuring the physical transmission of gas. The connection of the infrastructure of the two independent transmission operators for Bulgaria - ICGB and Bulgartransgaz - was carried out near Stara Zagora in the period August 16-17. The process is completed with three gold welds.

The project company ICGB, responsible for construction of the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) will be licensed as a transmission system operator (INGS Management license) in Greece, ICGB’s Executive Officer on the Bulgarian side Teodora Georgieva said in an exclusive interview with Trend.

A great engineering feat, IGB’s second horizontal directional drilling is now in the top five longest gas pipeline installations of this diameter executed to date in the EU

The project was presented as a key opportunity for Bulgaria's energy transition to greener and more sustainable solutions during a round table within the Three Seas Initiative

The interconnector is of great importance for the security of supplies and the diversification of natural gas sources and we cannot afford to compromise with the agreed deadlines, said the two Executive Officers of ICGB