Page 7 - EurOil Week 12 2023

EurOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT EurOil

Bulgaria ready for more Azeri gas,

Radev tells Aliyev

BULGARIA EU member Bulgaria is ready to receive more which together form the SGC, so as to meet
natural gas from Azerbaijan through the South- Europe’s growing demand for Azeri gas.
Bulgaria has been ern Gas Corridor (SGC) and the Interconnec- “Due to the growing demand in Europe for
hard hit by the loss of tor-Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) pipeline, Bulgarian natural gas from new sources, we are planning
Russian pipeline gas President Rumen Radev told Ilham Aliyev, the to expand our pipeline capacity. Particularly,
supply. President of Azerbaijan, during a visit to Baku TANAP [the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas
on March 11. Pipeline across Turkey], which has a capacity of
Radev was in Azerbaijan for the 10th Global 16bn cubic metres, we will expand up to 32 bcm,
Baku Forum but was forced to withdraw after and TAP, which has a capacity of 10 bcm, will be
testing positive for COVID-19. The two presi- expanded, we plan, up to 20 bcm,” Aliyev said,
dents spoke to one another through a video link. according to Interfax.
Radev said Bulgaria was pleased to be receiv- Citing data from the ICGB, the IGB operator,
ing gas from Azerbaijan via the IGB, which is Trend News Agency reported last week that the
working well since it began commercial oper- pipeline had transported 3.08mn MWh worth
ations on 1 October, 2022. The link provides of gas between January 1 and February 28, 2023.
Bulgaria about one-third of the natural gas it ICGB said that since pipeline start-up in 1 Octo-
consumes during the winter period. ber last year it had transported a total volume of
“From the first day of commissioning of the gas equivalent to 7.9mn MWh.
interconnector between Greece and Bulgaria, The pipeline currently has 15 registered users.
everything has been functioning perfectly and It is reported that around 1.6 bcm of the pipeline’s
without any problems,” Radev told Aliyev. “We initial 3 bcm per year capacity has been booked
are glad that we receive gas from Azerbaijan. You with 25-year contracts and that capacity can be
know that we are ready to go further.” reserved on the PRISMA and RBP platforms.
IGB has introduced a new source of gas Since the opening of the IGB, Bulgaria’s
supply to Bulgaria, which had been dependent Commission for Energy and Water Regulation
upon Russian gas and which continues to receive (EWRC) has reduced gas prices in the country
Russian oil. The 182-km IGB intersects with the twice. The March price is put at 106.74 leva/
SGC in northern Greece and continues on into MWh for March, Novinite reported. The price
southern Italy through the Trans-Adriatic Pipe- reached 353.21 leva/MWh in September 2022
line (TAP). after Russia’s Gazprom turned off gas supplies to
‘You are aware of our Solidarity Ring ini- Europe early last year.
tiative,” Radev said, referring to an EU’s East “Bulgaria and the European Union have
Ring project which is intended to link the gas managed well after the shutdown of Gazprom
networks of EU members in Southeast Europe. deliveries,” the report quoted EWRC head Ivan
“But, of course, the key point is Azerbaijan,” he Ivanov as saying. “Market trends show that the
said. “We are ready to transport additional vol- apocalyptic scenarios of darkness and cold in the
umes of Azerbaijani gas by combining the capa- absence of such deliveries have not come true,
bilities and efforts of the gas pipeline operators of and the previous extremely high prices of gas are
Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia. From now history.”
now on, the decision is up to you,” he added. He added that the price cut in March was also
Later in the week while meeting with a group due to the continued decline in prices on Euro-
of German business leaders in Berlin, Aliyev said pean gas hubs, prompted by the mild weather
that Azerbaijan intends to expand the capacity and the fact that European gas storage facilities
of its pipelines across the Caucasus and Turkey, remain fairly full, Novinite said. ™

Week 12 22•March•2023 www. NEWSBASE .com P7