Aleksia Petrova
SOFIA (Bulgaria), January 26 (SeeNews) - ICGB, the company developing the Gas Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria project, said that a total of 1.57 bcm, half of the gas link's capacity, has already been reserved ahead of its planned launch of commercial operations in July.
"Four out of the five shippers that have booked capacity are entirely new to the Bulgarian market and that leads us to believe the international and market interest in the project will only be growing after its commercial launch," ICGB said in a statement quoting Teodora Georgieva, its executive officer on the Bulgarian side.
ICGB also said that it has signed a contract with Germany-based PRISMA European Capacity Platform, Europe’s leading gas capacity trading platform, marking a major milestone in the preparations for the pipeline’s launch of commercial operation.
ICGB will auction its capacity at the interconnection points with Greek natural gas transmission system operator DESFA and the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) in Greece via PRISMA.
Being listed as a natural gas transmission operator on the PRISMA platform will allow ICGB to aim at new markets, further strengthening Bulgaria and Greece’s positions on the energy map of the region, according to Georgieva.
PRISMA connects 19 markets, hosting over 40 infrastructure operators. The platform operates with over 660 shippers, allowing transmission operators to market their products in a transparent and secure way, the statement read.
The projected capacity of the pipeline is up to 3 billion cu m per year in the direction from Greece to Bulgaria. Depending on interest from the market and the capacities of the neighbouring gas transmission systems, the capacity of the pipeline can be increased to up to 5 billion cu m per year, thus allowing for physical reverse flow from Bulgaria to Greece with the additional installation of a compressor station.
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