IGB may lose in value

The Greece-Bulgaria Interconnector (Interconnector Greece – Bulgaria: IGB) project, which will transfer Azerbaijani natural gas to Bulgaria, will lose in value.
Report informs that this is because the initially planned construction of two important automatic gas control stations has been removed from the construction contract with Greek company Avax without a corresponding change to the contract’s value.

The ICGB pipeline project company replied that the construction was financed not only with EU money but also with funds from the European Investment Bank, which means additional control.

The company says that both facilities have been phased out due to lack of need, and their value will be deducted from payments to the contractor, which are made only based on verified costs.

The country’s authorities are also carrying out an inspection of the security of the official information stored in Bulgarian Energy Holding. In the spring of this year, it became clear that Bulgaria will not receive gas from the new interconnector with Greece until mid-2022.

The IGB is designed to transport blue fuel from Shah Deniz 2 to Bulgaria. Through this pipeline, which will join TAP, Bulgaria will import 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year from Azerbaijan. Thus, the state company Bulgargaz EAD has signed a contract with the Shah Deniz consortium to purchase this amount of gas from the Shah Deniz-2 field. Azerbaijan will be able to meet 25-30% of Bulgaria’s gas needs. Construction work on the IGB is expected to be completed in the second half of next year.