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EIB considers loan for Greece- North Macedonia gas link
PIPELINES & TRANSPORT
The gas link would enable North Macedonia to access gas supplies arriving in Greece at LNG terminals.
THE European Investment Bank (EIB) may pro- vide a €25mn ($27mn) loan for the construction of a gas interconnector between Greece and North Macedonia, according to a message pub- lished on its website last week.
The loan, which would need approval from the EIB’s board of directors, would go towards paying for construction of the Greek section of the pipeline, which carries an overall cost of €51mn.
The gas link would enable North Macedonia to access gas supplies arriving in Greece at LNG terminals and the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) pipelines that provide Europe with gas from Azerbaijan. North Macedonia currently obtains all its gas from Russia, with shipments totalling just under 300mn cubic metres last year, accord- ing to Gazprom data.
The project, backed by Greece’s DESFA and North Macedonia’s MER Skopje, aims to run
a 120-km pipeline between the two countries, capable of flowing 1.75bn cubic metres of gas. It will start at Nea Messimvria in Greece and end near the North Macedonian city of Negotino.
MER Skopje and DESFA signed a memoran- dum on the project in 2016 and went on to form working groups to discuss it. The next stage will be market tests to see whether the plan is feasible.
The pipeline’s total cost is projected at €103mn. The EIB is also considering a €39.6mn loan for its North Macedonian section, according to the EU’s Energy Community. Other potential financiers include the European Regional Devel- opment Fund (ERDF) and the EU’s Western Bal- kans Investment Framework (WBIF).
Neither Greece and North Macedonia have specified a firm timeframe for taking a final investment decision (FID), laying the pipeline and commissioning it.
MIDDLE EAST
Bahrain refining overhaul reaches halfway point
PROJECTS & COMPANIES
Bahrain’s first LNG regasification terminal was recently completed.
A $6bn upgrade project at the Bahrain oil refin- ery is now halfway complete, Bahraini Oil Min- ister Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa announced on May 17.
Work at the Bahrain Petroleum Co. (BAPCO) plant is continuing on schedule despite the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pan- demic, Al Khalifa said in a statement. The pro- ject is slated for completion in the third quarter, he said. Earlier the refinery’s management had projected a mid-2022 finish date.
The modernisation programme kicked off last year, and aims to increase the plant’s processing capacity from 267,000 to 360,000 barrels per day (bpd) and install new units for the production of cleaner, higher-value fuels.
The refinery runs primarily on Arabian Light crude that is piped from processing facilities in Abqaiq in Saudi Arabia, which clean and remove sand and sulphur from the oil. BAPCO and Saudi Aramco commissioned phase four of
the A-B oil pipeline, taking total capacity up to 350,000 bpd.
Al Khalifa also drew attention to the recent completion of Bahrain’s first LNG regasification terminal. The project, a decade in the making, is aimed at helping the cash-strapped Middle Eastern state overcome gas shortages, boasting a send-out capacity of 825mn cubic metres per year.
However, the cash-strapped Bahraini govern- ment is yet to announce a date for the terminal’s commercial launch, despite it recently achieving a technical commissioning milestone. Discus- sions with LNG suppliers continue, but no con- tracts have been finalised.
Bahrain may not need to import LNG in the long term, Al Khalifa said, after making several offshore gas discoveries in recent years. He said that serious talks were underway with Saudi Ara- bia and the rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on establishing a network of gas pipelines in line Bahrain with the rest of the Gulf states.
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