July 20 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian natural gas supplier Overgas Inc. is planning to expand its business in the Western Balkans region after US-based Linden Energy signed a deal to acquire a 50% stake in the company, Overgas told SeeNews on Tuesday.
The detailed plans regarding Overgas' expansion intentions will be announced soon, Neri Terzieva, public relations manager at the company, told SeeNews in a statement.
Earlier this month, Linden Energy signed an agreement to acquire 50% interest in Overgas Inc. The value of the transaction was not disclosed.
"[...] I believe that Overgas is the perfect partner to expand from a leader in the Bulgarian gas market to a leader across the Balkan region. [...] In addition to our investment, Linden will take an active role in supporting Overgas' efforts to diversify the energy market in Bulgaria by adding other sources of natural gas, one possibility being U.S. LNG," Stephen Payne, Linden Energy president, said at the time.
The respective shares representing 50% interest were previously owned by Russian energy giant Gazprom and were bought back by Overgas in December 2020. In January, Gazprom said that it has reached a final settlement of all claims and disputes with Overgas Group, which also included the sale of Gazprom's stake in Overgas Inc. Gazprom said last year that its board of directors approved a decision to divest its 50% direct and indirect interest in Overgas for 15.5 million euro.
"In addition to what we plan to do to help Overgas build out its network and expand its customer base here in Bulgaria, we also are looking hard at the Western Balkans. As you know Albania and Kosovo basically do not have any kind of last mile gas network at all. So we hope to take what Overgas has done and put it in the Western Balkans as well," Payne said a video file published on Overgas' YouTube channel last week.
Overgas is considering the construction of a new LNG terminal on the Albanian coast, Svetoslav Ivanov, executive director of the Sofia-based company, said in the video file. The natural gas supplier is also intending to invest many efforts and money in new gas links in the Western Balkans as well as in the supply of natural gas to many cities and villages in the region, including in Bulgaria, Ivanov added.
Overgas is researching the possibility of potential partnerships for a new LNG terminal in Albania's Vlore, on the Ionian coast, Yuliya Georgieva, gas origination and trading manager at Overgas was quoted as saying in an article published on Monday by Independent Commodity Intelligence Services (ICIS) - a London-based independent source and benchmark for price information and insight across key commodities markets worldwide.
The company is also in the process of receiving its final permits to become active in Romania, Georgieva also said.
Linden Energy, founded by Payne in 2013, has projects under consideration in Europe, Eastern Europe, and South Asia. Payne has a strong history in the international energy sector as he has negotiated over 27 MTPA of LNG sales, was instrumental in the development of several large LNG export projects in the United States, and several major international pipelines. Linden Energy is a 10% capacity holder in the IGB pipeline since 2016, according to the statement.
The Greece-Bulgaria gas interconnector, which is currently under construction, has a total estimated cost of 220 million euro and a planned length of 182 km. The pipeline will connect the Greek gas transmission system in the area of Komotini to the Bulgarian gas transmission system in the area of Stara Zagora. The projected capacity will be up to 3 billion cu m per year in the direction from Greece to Bulgaria.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)