BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb.25
By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:
It is feasible for Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR to start initial activities in gas distribution in Bulgaria this year, Bulgarian Energy Minister Temenuzhka Petkova told Trend.
She recalled that in connection with the agreement reached between President Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister Boyko Borissov in 2018, SOCAR had several meetings and received detailed information from the Ministry of Energy and the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission (EWRC) on the possibilities for investments in the gas distribution sector in Bulgaria.
SOCAR then instructed a large international advisory company to carry out a feasibility study on the implementation of such a project, added Petkova.
“According to the information provided by our SOCAR partners, the study has been completed and its conclusions are positive. In this regard, we will discuss these perspectives at a bilateral meeting with Minister Shahbazov within the framework of the Advisory Council meeting. Taking into account these positive results, we believe it is feasible this year SOCAR to start initial activities in gas distribution on the territory of Bulgaria,” said the minister.
Bulgaria expects to receive Azerbaijani gas through IGB, a gas pipeline that will be connected to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP).
IGB is a gas pipeline, which will allow Bulgaria to receive Azerbaijani gas, in particular, the gas produced from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz 2 gas and condensate field. IGB is expected to be connected to TAP via which gas from the Shah Deniz field will be delivered to the European markets.
The Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria project envisages a two-stage development.
In the first stage, the pipeline capacity will be 3 billion cubic meters of gas, of which 2.7 billion cubic meters will be offered for the long-term market, the remaining share of 0.3 billion cubic meters in the short term.
In a second phase, also depending on the evolution of the market, the capacity of the pipeline can be increased to 5.3 billion cubic meters of gas thanks to the addition of a compression station: 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas 0.5 billion cubic meters of short-term gas will be offered for long-term products.
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