BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 5. The mandatory stage of market testing of the capacity increase of the gas transportation system DESFA (Greece) at the Sidirokastro and Komotini hubs with Bulgaria will start on May 2, Trend reports.
The company, the operator of the Greek gas transmission system (TSO), this week submitted to the Greek regulator project proposals and guidelines on plans to increase the capacity of the system, which is a condition for the organization of a market test on the binding bids of those companies that will want to book the expanded capacity.
Additionally, an earlier market test on non-binding bids showed interest in capacity expansion and led to the preparation of an investment plan, which includes three different scenarios and concerns investments of up to 570 million euros in the Greek gas transportation system.
The interest in expanding capacity to five and further to 10 billion cubic meters per year is linked to EU support for the Vertical Corridor project to deliver gas from Greek liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals through Greece and Bulgaria to Romania, Slovenia, Hungary, Moldova, and Ukraine.
"DESFA's work in this direction will be discussed in mid-April in Brussels at the regular meeting of the CESEC (Central and Southeast European Energy Connectivity) ministerial conference," the Greek company notes.
CESEC has been developing since 2015 but has been particularly active since 2022 due to the reduction of Russian gas supplies to Europe due to international sanctions.
To note, Azerbaijan is also involved in CESEC activities as it supplies gas to the EU via Greece and Bulgaria via the Southern Gas Corridor.
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