SOFIA (Bulgaria), July 26 (SeeNews) – Bulgaria’s government said on Wednesday it approved a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Macedonia to build a new gas link between the two countries.
The MoU is in full compliance with the Energy Community’s aim to establish a regional energy market in Southeast Europe (SEE) and integrate it into the EU’s common energy market, the government said in a statement.
The document takes into account the benefits for the security of gas supplies to the SEE region and the EU from projects related to the Southern Gas Corridor, including the gas links Bulgaria-Greece and Bulgaria-Turkey, regional gas distribution hub Balkan, as well as other projects of common European interest in the sphere of gas infrastructure, the government said.
Under the MoU, Bulgaria and Macedonia will establish a working group that will conduct a feasibility study within 6 months after the document enters into force.The next steps which the two countries will take depend on the results of the feasibility study.
On Tuesday, Bulgarian energy minister Temenuzhka Petkova said the government intends to launch a tender for the construction of a gas interconnection with Greece this autumn. The construction of the interconnector Greece-Bulgaria is planned to start in 2018. The link providing for gas flow in both directions is expected to become operational in 2020.