December 21 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's gas transmission system operator Bulgartransgaz said on Friday that it has launched the binding phase of the open season procedure for booking capacity for incremental capacity from the border with Turkey to the border with Serbia.
The phase will run from December 21 until January 31, Bulgartransgaz said in a statement.
Depending on the results, Bulgartransgaz will decide whether to build a new 484 km gas pipeline from compressor station Nova Provadia, which will be located some 50 km away from the Black Sea coast city of Varna, to the border with Serbia. The project also envisages construction of a new pipeline of 11 km length to the border with Turkey and another compressor station, located some 400 km away from compressor station Nova Provadia.
The estimated cost of the project is some 2.77 billion levs ($1.62 billion/1.42 billion euro).
The new gas infrastructure is planned to transfer Russian gas from TurkStream gas pipeline to Europe.
Currently, Bulgaria imports almost all the natural gas it needs from Russia via a pipeline crossing Ukraine, Moldova and Romania.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)