November 20 (SeeNews) - Bulgartransgaz and its peer Transportgas Serbia signed an agreement formalising the interconnection between the two national gas transmission systems at the soon-to-open Kalotina-Dimitrovgrad point, the Bulgarian state-owned company said.
The new gas link, known as the Interconnector Bulgaria-Serbia (IBS), can transport 1.8 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas per year in the direction of Serbia, with the possibility for a reverse flow, Bulgartransgaz said in a press release on Saturday.
"I am convinced that the access along this route to gas from alternative sources, such as Azerbaijan and the LNG [liquefied natural gas] terminals and the trading platform of Balkan Gas Hub EAD that ensures the connectivity to the network of Bulgartransgaz will be positively assessed by the users in Serbia," the Bulgarian company's CEO Vladimir Malinov said.
The 170-kilometre pipeline, running from the Bulgarian town of Novi Iskar to the Serbian city of Nis, is also seen to grant Bulgaria access to natural gas sources from Western Europe along a new route. On Bulgarian territory, the pipeline is 65-km long, has three gas metering stations and was completed by Glavbolgarstroy.
The construction of the IBS was funded by a 28 million euro ($30.6 million) EU grant through the Connecting Europe Facility. It received another 2.8 million euro grant under the Innovation and Competitiveness operational programme.
Bulgaria and Serbia signed a deal for the gas pipeline in 2012. Both countries faced serious gas supply issues in 2009 due to the Russia-Ukraine price dispute. Construction, however, faced a decade-long delay due to the resumption of Russian gas shipments.
Bulgaria's success in achieving diversification away from Russian gas is to a large extent due to the imports of Caspian natural gas and regasified LNG via the 3 bcm/year Greek-Bulgarian gas link (IGB), which became operational in October 2022 and which is already planning a capacity increase to 5 bcm/year.
Bulgartransgaz, which operates a 3,380-km gas transmission network, has existing gas links with all neighbouring countries and is planning to build new pipelines to boost gas flow with Romania, Greece and North Macedonia.
Last week, Serbia, which is heavily reliant on Russian gas, signed a contract to import up to 400 million cubic metres (mcm) of natural gas from Azerbaijan by the end of 2024.
In the first nine months of 2023, the total volumes transmitted by Bulgartransgaz to interconnection points with neighbouring countries amounted to 102,081,543 MWh, or 4.8% more than in the comparable period of 2022.
On Friday, Serbia’s government said it has turned to the European Commission to take action against Bulgaria over a new fee it has imposed on Russian gas transiting the country.
($ = 0.9158 euro)