Bulgartransgaz mulls investing in second LNG terminal in Greece

Bulgartransgaz which is a 20% shareholder in the LNG terminal under construction in Alexandroupolis said in a statement that the floating storage regasification unit has left Keppel Corporation's shipyard in Singapore and is expected to arrive in this Greek Aegean Sea port in mid-December.

The Alexandroupolis LNG terminal is scheduled to be commissioned at the beginning of 2024.

According to the statement, Bulgartransgaz expects to complete works on the expansion of Bulgaria's sole underground gas storage facility Chiren by the end of 2024. Chiren's capacity is set to double to 1 billion cubic metres (bcm). Under EU rules on gas storage adopted in 2022, member states lacking storage facilities must ensure they can store at least 15% of their annual gas consumption in another EU state.

LNG volumes are set to rise because of growing interest in South-North transmission. Bulgartransgaz last week unveiled plans to work on the capacity expansion of the Vertical Gas Corridor, together with transmission system operators from Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary.

"The synergy of the Vertical Gas Corridor projects, the Alexandroupolis terminal and the Chiren UGS expansion will provide the necessary conditions for supplying larger volumes of LNG not only to the Greek and Bulgarian markets, but also to the entire region, including Serbia, North Macedonia, Ukraine and Moldova,” Bulgartransgaz executive director Vladimir Malinov said.

The Alexandroupolis LNG terminal has a regasification capacity of 5.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) per year. Bulgaria, which uses some 3 bcm of natural gas per year, has booked annual storage capacity of 1 bcm at the terminal. The facility is being developed by project company Gastrade, which has four other shareholders with stakes of 20% each - Greek gas transmission operator DESFA, Gaslog Cyprus Investment, Greek gas supplier DEPA Commercial and Elmina Copelouzos of the Copelouzos Group.