September 30 (SeeNews) - Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR has shown interest in the planned expansion of the Chiren gas storage, in northwestern Bulgaria, the energy ministry in Sofia said on Friday.
The capacity of the will be increased to 1 billion cubic metres from 550 million cubic metres at present, the Bulgarian energy ministry announced in a statement.
The expansion of the storage is important in view of Bulgaria's proposal to build a gas hub in the country. Azerbaijan has been reported to be exploring opportunities to feed gas into the proposed distribution centre.
"Bulgaria's government is working as fast as possible for the diversification of [gas] supplies for Bulgaria and the region through the construction of gas links with neighbouring countries," Bulgaria's energy deputy minister Zhecho Stankov has said at a meeting of the Azerbaijan-Bulgaria intergovernmental commission in Baku held on September 27-29, according to the statement.
At the same meeting, SOCAR has also confirmed its interest in booking capacity on the future inteconnection that will link the natural gas transmission systems of Bulgaria and Greece, the energy ministry said.
The Chiren gas storage is located near the town of Vratsa, some 110 km north of Sofia. It has 22 exploitation wells, a compressor station with total installed capacity of 10 MW and other technological equipment required to secure the injection, withdrawal and quality of stored gas.
Bulgaria should submit a proposal for feasibility studies for its gas hub to the European Commission by November 9 in order to secure funding for the project, Klaus-Dieter Borchardt, Director DG Energy, European Commission said earlier this month during a visit to Bulgaria.